BULGARIA LOSES EUR 51 MILLION IN EU AGRICULTURE FUNDS
Bulgaria has left EUR 51 million of EU funds for agriculture unabsorbed in 2012, and this amount will be substracted from its funds for the next programing period.
This was announced Wednesday at a press event by Bulgarian State Agriculture Fund director Rumen Porozhanov, as cited by Sofia News Agency.
Bulgaria has absorbed EUR 381 M from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)'s EUR 431 million allotted for 2010.
The payment of funds on EAFRD is two years after the approval of the budget.
This means that on this instrument, Bulgaria has a 88% rate of absorption for 2012.
According to Porozhanov, one of the main reasons for less than optimal absorption is that the program for Bulgaria started two years later.
The main area with deficient absroption is the so-called axis 2, comprising "environmental measures" to be implemented by agriculture producers.
