2023-11-29 17:55:25
There have been reports of pressure from the organizers of the protest against small and medium livestock breeders, reported by the ministry
In the eve of protest on November 30 (Thursday) from MZH reported that in connection with the placed requests of the protesting organizations from the “Livestock” and “Greenhouse production” sectors express position on the following points:
1. State aid to compensate for the consequences of the war in Ukraine and necessary De minimis funds should be included in the 2024 budget.
In the draft of the Law on the State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria for 2024, under the budget of the State Fund “Agriculture”, funds in the amount of BGN 450,350,000 have been pledged in the support of farmers, including support with de minimis minimum aid.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food has asked the Ministry of Finance to provide additional funds for 2024 in the amount of BGN 442,000,000 in total, which will be directed to the implementation of extraordinary measures according to the Temporary Framework. In securing the additional resource, notification of state aid “Aid to support the liquidity of farmers to overcome the negative economic impact of Russian aggression against Ukraine” with a budget of BGN 426,000,000 is foreseen in 2024, as well as of state aid to compensate for the costs of water for irrigation, with an analogous budget of 2023, in the amount of BGN 16,000,000.
2. To increase the rates for tied support to last year’s level.
From 2023, support to farmers is provided under the conditions and budgets defined in the Strategic Plan for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas 2023-2027 approved by the European Commission. Within the maximum allowable budget according to European legislation – 13% of the financial package for direct payments is for farmers from the “Fruits and vegetables” and “Livestock” sectors. They receive production-linked support under a total of 21 interventions, which aims to guarantee a certain level of minimum income.
By implementing the CAP policy for a fairer distribution of support to smaller farms and reducing income differences in the most vulnerable sectors from 2023, small and medium-sized farmers receive higher support within farms, by changing the modulation in bound support. The implementation of this policy is carried out with the creation of new interventions and expansion of the scope of the existing ones, which affects the amount of support, within a fixed budget.
The strategic plan, through the interventions of direct payments, provides an opportunity to supplement the incomes of farmers mainly through the cumulative application at the farm level of the other interventions to support an area of 8 more interventions in the “Livestock” sector and 8 interventions in the “Fruits and vegetables” sector.
3. Restoring the transitional aid rates to last year’s level.
In order to avoid a sudden and significant reduction in support for farmers in the “Livestock” sector, which is provided with funds from the national budget, through transitional national support in the period 2015-2022, European legislation allows this support to be continued at certain conditions and restrictions. Given the transitory nature of said aid, the process of phasing it out by gradually reducing the budget on an annual basis by 5% continues. According to the provisions of the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation – 2115/2021, for the 2023 campaign the budget is 50% of the budget for transitional national aid, which was determined by the Commission in 2013.
The conditions for the provision of transitional national aid are identical to those applied during the previous program period, and from 2023 the new reference date for the number of reared animals – cattle and buffaloes under the scheme for transitional national aid for cattle and buffaloes, not tied to production – has been set – 31.12 .2018, with the latest possible date closest to 2023.
Support for cattle and buffaloes is determined on the basis of the number of animals applied for support on holdings in which at least 50% of the number of animals are kept on the specified reference date.
As a result of the change of the reference date, the number of animals eligible for support has increased significantly, and for Campaign 2023 it is 409,224 cattle and 14,580 buffaloes kept by 6,065 farmers.
For comparison, in 2022, 3,463 farmers received support for 160,442 cattle and 3,227 buffaloes.
In 2023, 75% more farmers and 258% more animals were supported, which, with a decreasing budget, affects the amount of support proportionally.
4. To the farmers who did not receive the compensation funds for the consequences of the war in Ukraine for the past tranches, they should be paid.
On November 21, 2023, the EC approved an amendment to the Temporary Framework, extending its application period until June 30, 2024 and increasing the maximum aid amount for an enterprise operating in primary agricultural production from EUR 250,000 to EUR 280,000. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food re-notified the state aid measure with regard to the new ceiling and term. The aid was approved by the EC on 29.11.2023 and will be paid out in December, following a decision of the Board of Directors of the Agriculture Fund, up to the amount of the new ceiling of 280,000 euros.
In 2023, under the Ukrainian measure, nearly 35,300 farmers were supported in the fruit, vegetable and livestock sectors, including honey.
In addition to the expressed position and in connection with received signals that during the preparation of the protest, pressure is being exerted by its organizers on small and medium-sized livestock breeders for support with threats that, otherwise, their livestock breeding sites will be inspected and closed, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food strongly condemns such a statement and will not allow inappropriate actions.
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