Minister of Agriculture on the farmers' protest: This is not the face of Bulgarian agriculture

Minister of Agriculture, Kiril Vatev, defined the demands of the protesting farmers on November 30 as unfounded and said that they were in fact protesting against the Bulgarian and European legislation.

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According to Kiril Vatev, the ministry has fulfilled all its commitments to the farmers and has even negotiated additional aid for them.

"This is not the face of Bulgarian agriculture and animal husbandry. Those who are on the market and are successful are not here at the protest. Besides, if you look closely at the footage, you will see faces of people who have nothing to do with agriculture. I will continue to comply with the legislation.

Absolutely everything by law and by regulation has been complied with. And this protest is protesting against Bulgarian and European legislation. The demands are not legitimate and, in fact, we have far exceeded their demands with this additional aid for energy costs that we have submitted for notification.

Everything that is due as per the law has been paid. There is one aid for small ruminants for which we have uploaded a schedule and it will be paid from tomorrow to Monday.

Everything that is due to be paid by law and by regulation has been paid. We have secured EUR 30,000 above the EUR 250,000 threshold, which is because of the war in Ukraine, and this is a one-off aid for the whole period.

So far, there is no regulation that is for 2023 or 2024. With the other 4 border countries - Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, we will insist on having aid again for 2024 because of the war in Ukraine, but this is a European regulation - the highest regulation that we all comply with," Vatev said.