Almost a quarter of farmers who applied for subsidies under thе support scheme last year did not receive the money due to attempted fraud. This was announced at an emergency briefing by the director of the Agriculture Fund Vasil Grudev.
The briefing was in response to a published recording of a meeting between Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva and fruit and vegetable growers, in which Taneva advised adherence to the allegation that no fraud was identified under tied support schemes to keep Brussels from stopping funding.
Taneva was adamant that the reply was out of context and that there was virtually no possibility that Brussels would not be notified of the inspections and violations. Only after the European Commission has received this information, it authorizes the Agriculture Fund to make payments under the scheme.
According to Taneva, political interests are behind this attack.
The minister expressed concern that the attack could jeopardize the receipt of support in the next programming period.
Earlier today, the press center of the Ministry of Agriculture issued a statement emphasizing that the Ministry of Agriculture has regularly informed the European Commission about the results of all inspections carried out under European schemes, which are funded by national and European funds.