Bulgaria Calls for Increasing Coupled Support at EU Farm Council Meeting

Ivan Stankov, Bulgaria's caretaker Agriculture and Food Minister, has presented the country's stance on the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) at a meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels.

Stankov, as cited by the press office of Bulgaria's Ministry of Agriculture and Food, said in Brussels that Bulgaria insisted on allowing Member States applying the Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS) to notify more than 10% for coupled support.

According to the media statement of the Bulgarian Agriculture Ministry, the meeting continues on Tuesday and the discussion will revolve around a CAP reform package in a bid to agree on a common approach to the four main regulations contained in it.

Stankov argued that Bulgaria's main priority was support contingent on the actual agricultural production not only on the land area used.

He said that Bulgaria called for expanding the scope of this type of support and increasing the budget allocated to it.

Stankov drew attention to the European Parliament proposal to increase coupled support to 15% of SAPS which had been voted last week, saying that it had been a step in the right direction.

Bulgaria's caretaker Agriculture Minister declared that Bulgaria would demand that the SAPS remain in place until the end of the next EU programming period in 2020, with an opportunity to also use the basic payment scheme.

He said that Bulgaria also backed the decision to support small farmers with a single annual payment of up to EUR 1500.

Stankov also presented Bulgaria's stance that the requirement for allocating 7% of arable land to "ecological focus areas" was too demanding and a reduction to 3% for the first year was a good compromise.