Minister of Agriculture and Food Miroslav Naydenov met in Brussels with European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Dician Ciolos. The meeting was also attended by Romanian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Valeriu Tabara, and Hungarian Minister of Rural Development Sandor Fazekas, in his capacity of representative of the country holding the EU Presidency at the moment,.
The Bulgarian and Romanian ministers raised the issue about the balancing of the payments given to the two countries with those allocated for the older member states after January 1, 2014.
European Commissioner Ciolos, on the other hand, said he understands and accepts the arguments of the two countries, adding that the balancing of the payments is scheduled to start in 2016, as stated in the EU pre-accession treaties. In this sense, the timeline could be changed only at the approval of all member states, Ciolos remarked.
The other issue discussed at the meeting was Bulgaria and Romania’s request for unblocking the money frozen under the SAPARD programme. The European Commissioner recommended the countries to address European Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget Janusz Lewandowski.