Prime Minister’s adviser Plugchieva misleads with claims of “unpaid” farm subsidies

Meglena Plugchieva, foreign policy adviser to acting Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev, warned on Sunday that 100,000 farmers had not been paid the European subsidies for cultivating the land, known as direct payments, on time. According to the regulation, however, these payments, which are the most massive subsidies in the EU and amount to BGN 1.5 billion, must be made in December and in the first months of 2025.

“I understand in Brussels…”

“I understand in Brussels, where we were a few days ago, that the Strategic Plan for Agriculture, which with the changes should have been submitted in September last year by the Ministry of Agriculture, was submitted at the end of December and the payment of direct payments (subsidies) is delayed for land from the EU – b.a.) This money that farmers are waiting for and this is for over 100,000 farmers… Direct payments that should be paid from March 1 to May 15. Tomorrow is the 22nd (today – B.A.) and not only will they not be, there is no way they will be paid, because there are procedures”he said Plugchieva in the program “The day begins with Georgi Lyubenov” of BNT.

And what are the deadlines in reality

Actually, though now is not the time to pay direct grants, now is the time to apply for them. Traditionally, since Bulgaria has been in the EU, direct subsidies have been applied for every year from March 1 to May 15. I.e. farmers submit applications indicating where they will cultivate their fields and what environmentally friendly schemes they will implement, and it is only in December that the EC makes most of the payments, the rest in the first months of 2025.

And in 2023, these payments traditionally occurred at the end of the year.

Apart from that, Brussels usually also extends the deadline for applying for this money. Last year, for example, it was extended from May until July 21. The EC is doing this because of the application rules for the new eco-schemes, which have to be followed and take more time for farmers to plan.

The Prime Minister was prepared more precisely

The Prime Minister himself was far more correct when he pointed to direct payments as the reason for replacing the Minister of Agriculture, Kiril Vatev. In his reasons to the president, he pointed out “the non-started campaign for direct payments”, that is, that the application has not startedand not as his advisor Plugchieva claimed on public television – “payments”.

The bomb that won’t even go off

Meglena Plugchieva also talked about another “bomb” left by the regular government of the office – the assistance to grain producers for the damages they suffer from the war in Ukraine.

“Tomorrow the deadline expires in which the so-called Ukrainian aid to farmers must be paid, and here we are talking about several hundred million, and I must inform you and the Bulgarian public of this fact that there is not a single lev in the budget for the payment of this aid. You understand that this is a memorandum signed by the Minister of Agriculture and the former Prime Minister and it is de facto left as a bomb to this caretaker government. This is extremely worrying“said Plugchieva.

As Mediapool already wrote, in March the European Commission allowed Bulgaria to pay 61.3 million euros from its budget to grain producers. And at the end of the same month, Brussels also gave carte blanche to Bulgarian aid of 86.9 million euros for fruits, vegetables and animals.

The government of Nikolay Denkov stated that there is no money available in the budget to cover the authorized aid in both directions, but money will be provided through redistribution from the available budgets of the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Fund “Agriculture”..

According to Mediapool, the Acting Minister of Finance Lyudmila Petkova will provide today or tomorrow the amount for the so-called “Ukrainian aid”, by redirecting funds from the financing of European projects under the Program for the Development of Rural Areas. Bulgaria is yet to negotiate with Brussels for this BGN 150 million.which are taken from the national co-financing of projects under the program, then to be filled with unspent funds under other pillars of the program.

Plugchieva was also offered the post of minister

“I was offered ministerial positions, which I refused. Dimitar Glavchev is placed in an extremely difficult situation and needs people who have management, political and diplomatic experience“, Plugchieva also commented on Sunday to BNT. She recalled that she was ambassador in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein and in Montenegro, “but I have always been a political quota of the Foreign Ministry. I respect the principles, it is not right for a person like me to take the position of foreign minister in a caretaker government“she said.

Meglena Plugchieva was also the minister for European funds in the government of Sergey Stanishev.