The Bulgarian government will give €100 million in state subsidies to local farmers who have threatened new protests over imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, the government announced on Monday.
The caretaker government in Sofia quickly agreed to increase state subsidies for farmers to avoid further protests on the eve of early elections. Bulgarians go to the polls on 27 October for the seventh time in three and a half years.
“Uncertainty and lack of trust in the executive would put farmers back on the streets, disrupting constructive dialogue between the state and the industry,” the National Association of Grain Producers said in an earlier statement.
The farmers’ association’s message was issued on the day that campaigning for the general election began.
Half of the government subsidy will go to cereal and oilseed growers. The remaining money will go to support livestock farmers, beekeepers and fruit and vegetable growers.
Following threats of protests in February 2024, the Bulgarian government promised more than €160 million to farmers, who warned of the risk of mass bankruptcies due to imports of much cheaper goods from Ukraine.
The farmers also announced that they would protest against Brussels’ environmental demands based on the Green Deal. They insisted that Bulgaria should ask at the European level for a relaxation of the rules in the Strategic Plans for Agriculture and Rural Development, which the government has failed to implement.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
Source: euractiv.com
