site.btaAgriculture Minister: New CAP May Fail to Start If Bulgaria Enters Series of Elections

“If the newly formed majority pushes the country into a series of elections, the new Common Agricultural Programme may not begin from 2023 and no one will receive subsidies,” said Agriculture Minister Ivan Ivanov at a meeting with representatives of the local authorities and farmers in the northeastern village of Lovchantsi.

“We are in a very difficult situation and we are trying to catch up. More is to be done unless the political crisis escalates and this will affect directly you,” he said.

Ivanov recalled that without a legislature a number of laws of cannot be revised and the European Commission won’t authorize direct payments.

“I don’t know if some people are aware what they are doing at the moment. This concerns the National Recovery and Resilience Plan under which a considerable amount has been set aside for agriculture. Sixteen billion leva have been earmarked for agriculture and it is unclear how policies will be implemented from now on,” said Ivanov.

“We have done what we could and we are in talks with the European Commission with regards to the commentaries that it has made about the strategic plan,” he added.

In a televised interview for bTV on Sunday evening, Ivanov commented on the upcoming vote on a no-confidence motion against the Government. His Bulgarian Socialist Party is hoping the MPs, regardless of which political group they are, will show reason and conscience and will take into view that if the Cabinet falls, the situation in Bulgaria will worsen instead of improve. There is a risk of a financial, economic, and political crisis, as well as failure to update the 2020 state budget, Ivanov said.

Asked where a potential support for the Government could come, Ivanov said that it is normal to get support from the rest of There is Such a People’s MPs, as this is the party with which  a coalition agreement was sighed and of which the outgoing ministers are members. 

In his words, floating majorities are not a solution, and the Bulgarian Socialist Party has said in a position that such a scenario is not right for the country’s governance.