„I had another serious conversation with the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, where I discussed the matter of the aid ceiling“, said the Minister of Agriculture and Food Kiril Vatev to the media in Brussels, within the framework of his participation in the EU Council on Agriculture and Fisheries.
Bulgaria has received a letter from the European Commission, proposing to lift the ceiling to EUR 280,000 and have it in force until March 31, 2024. The Ministry responded through the Ministry of Finance that no ceiling should be imposed.
Today I repeated the proposal of ours to the European Commissioner Wojciechowski and reminded him that we have sent him a written statement. For his part, he said that we is the only Member State that wants no ceiling on state aid and added that such a policy would breach the European regulations.
We both agreed to continue the conversation on the matter in an online meeting on November 22.
Minister Vatev also held a meeting with the agriculture ministers of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. Together they discussed the current imports from Ukraine. All ministers joined together to insist on the continuation of Ukrainian aid for the entire 2024 year, since these are the countries that are actually the most affected and have identical problems.