The National Assembly will help the protesting grain producers arrange a meeting at the Agriculture Ministry on Monday, National Assembly Chairman Georgi Pirinski told BTA Friday. He had an hour's discussion with protesting grain producers. Bulgaria's wheat farmers staged a protest rally in the capital city on Friday, a day after they held local protests across the country over the lack of state subsidies for their production. The protesters said they have not received national per-hectare co-payments for arable land for this year. At the meeting in the Agriculture Ministry the farmers hope to make progress on issues such as the national per-hectare co-payments for this year and making sure that money earmarked for them do not end up somewhere else, Pirinski said. According to him, the payment requests which have already been made should be verified to preclude any irregularity. Pirinski underscored that it is necessary the requests for payments for arable lands not to be doubled and blocked. According to the National Grain Producers' Association Chairman, Krassimir Avramov, the money they have asked for would not be lost and "would reach every hectare of arable land".

 

The problem is in the Paying Agency which has to deal with the mistakes leading to the duplication of land. After a meeting with Pirinski, Agriculture and Food Minister Valeri Tsvetanov said that he had forwarded all of the grain producers' demands to the Council of Ministers. He added that he has requested the funds required for the national co-payments and did not vote for the 2009 budget at the Council of Ministers' meeting last Thursday. The required 147 million leva are included in the draft budget for 2009 and this money should be paid. The proposals will be discussed at the government's meeting next Thursday. The Agriculture Minister said also that it would make sense reducing the price of bread considering the low prices of grain. Tsvetanov added that a letter by European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Areas Mariann Fischer Boel was received informing the Bulgarian government of her intention to propose an extension of the annual financial agreement for SAPARD by a year until the end of 2009.