2024-03-14 06:42:32
Are the cooked changes legal for state fields. This issue will be raised by farmers from the Bulgarian Association of Agricultural Land Owners (BASZZ) before the EC.
This is what Miroslav Karakashev from BASZZ told the deputies, after minutes ago the Law on the ownership and use of agricultural lands was adopted in the first reading.
With the changes made, government lands will only be leased or leased by auction, but farmers can only bid for them if they are local.
The initiators of the law are the chairman of the agricultural commission Desislava Taneva and a group of people’s representatives.
The adopted proposals give preference to farmers operating in sensitive sectors such as growing vegetables, perennial crops, annual field crops, perennial fodder crops, as well as organic farmers.
Among the amendments is that the minimum term of the contracts is 5 years.
By June 30, the land users will have to provide for registration in the municipal agricultural services the rental and lease contracts, with which they will participate in the procedures for concreting the areas at their disposal.
In addition, an amendment is proposed to change the way of approving agreements for the use of arable land and perennial crops. It will be signed by not less than 2/3 of its participants and covers an area that is not less than 2/3 of the arrays for use. For the remaining 1/3, distribution is carried out according to the currently valid rules.
With a statement sent to the agricultural commission yesterday, BASZZ made it clear that they are against the new texts, explaining that they do not have the support of the branch organizations, but rather are in favor of the 1.5% of large farmers who hold 85% of the lands. Therefore, the claims that there was a public discussion on the bill in question did not correspond to the objective reality and the legal requirements.
The association also says that the proposed amendments will create enormous difficulties and administrative chaos.
The chairman of the agricultural commission, Desislava Taneva, explained today that the people’s representatives submitted the bill to the National Assembly following an initiative from the non-governmental sector.
“After it was sent to us by the Ministry of Agriculture as a product of the advisory councils on land relations with a request that it be introduced by the deputies who recognized the texts, we did it,” she explained.
Svilen Trifonov from PP-DB said that the law should be supported because it is important. He was only concerned about the recorded changes concerning the distribution of the areas.
“In this way, the big farmers who dominate will have the opportunity to distribute all the quality land among themselves, and at the same time they will put the small ones in such a position that they will be given non-fertile lands, those that are unsuitable,” he said. and proposed to create a task force and clear up these ambiguities.
“With the legal changes, we aim to maximally protect the interests of first the small users, then the medium and finally the large ones. This area of 1/3 that remains also has a legal basis. The idea is not that farmers should be accommodated outside this area if they do not want to to conclude contracts for rent or lease,” explained Iliya Prodanov, chairman of the National Association of Grain Producers.
According to Miroslav Karakashev from BASZZ, it is an absolute violation of the law that the texts be released for public discussion before being voted on in the committee.
“It is to the detriment of all Bulgarian citizens and to the benefit of certain people. There are two paragraphs of this law that concern the rights of owners, but also of small farmers. The goal is one – to cultivate foreign land without looking for the owners with the so-called service allocations”, Karakashev was angry.
He was categorical that this is in complete opposition to European policies and added that we will raise the issue at the European level as well.
Daniel Petrov from “Vazrazhdane” explained that when a law is introduced by the people’s representatives there is no need to go through a public discussion.
In the end, the committee members decided that there were some contentious texts that would have to be cleared up, and by submitting proposals between the two readings, a working group would be set up to reach agreement on the changes from all sides.