Bulgarian Farmers to Get Nearly Lv 140 Mln of Additional Aid under Direct Payment Schemes

Bulgarian farmers will receive nearly 140 million leva in additional aid under the schemes for direct payments and coupled support within the 2020 campaign. This transpired during a video conference of Bulgarian Agriculture, Food and Forestry Minister Dessislava Taneva with representatives of all branch organizations in agriculture that benefit from aid under direct payment schemes and coupled support.

The proposal, made possible by the European Commission, was met with the branch organizations' unanimous approval, Taneva's Ministry reported.

Under Regulation (EU) 2020/127 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 January 2020, Member States can transfer funds between the two Common Agricultural Policy pillars within this year's campaign. The resources can be received by the end of 2020. These funds increase the package of direct payments by 9 per cent and enable around 60,000 farmers to receive aid, Taneva explained.

During the meeting, Deputy Agriculture, Food and Forestry Minister Lozana Vassileva said that next week they will publish for public consultation the guidelines for applying under submeasure 16.4 of the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 (Support for Horizontal and Vertical Cooperation among Supply Chain Actors). The sub-measure, which has a budget of 8 million euro, will support short supply chains between farmers and end consumers. The application process will open in early June, Vassileva specified.

Source: BTA Daily news