Bulgaria insists that there is no ceiling on aid for those affected by Ukrainian imports

He added that this decision was discussed in a meeting between him and his colleagues from the mentioned countries. The ministers discussed the impact of Ukrainian agricultural imports. We agreed to ask together for the whole of 2024 to have new Ukrainian aid for our farmersVatev explained:

“Today we had another serious conversation with the Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski. I asked him the question again because we have a letter from the EC that they propose, not that they have decided, but that they propose that the ceiling become 280,000 euros, which was 250,000 euros until now, and that its effect should last until March 31.

We have returned an answer through the Ministry of Finance that we want no ceiling.

I repeated it to Wojciechowski today, I said that we had written it. He said: You are the only country in the European Union that has asked for state aid to be uncapped. The regulation says otherwise.

After which we had a meeting with the five border countries, these are Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. There it was discussed how imports from Ukraine are currently affecting us.

In general terms, the situation is the same in all countries and we agreed that we will all together request for the whole year 2024 to have new Ukrainian aid for our farmers, as they are actually damaged at the moment”, added Minister Vatev.

Meanwhile, the European Commission announced today that it proposes to extend by another 3 months – until the middle of next year – the effect of the temporary rules on state aid in the European Union due to the war in Ukraine and the increase in energy prices.