“It is important for recent EU member states to harmonise their standpoints t ensure that farmers have access to suitable levels of funding”, Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas emphasised following a meeting with Bulgarian Minister of Agriculture and Food Rumen Porodzanov in Sofia.

With relation to the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Mr. Fazekas told reporters: “It is of key importance that agricultural funding continues to be received by farmers”. “The current CAP system provides member states with sufficient flexibility to enable them to develop their own models according to their own priorities”, the Minister added.

Mr. Fazekas pointed out that Hungary can also count on Bulgaria with relation to efforts to put an end to the practice of dual product quality. In a statement issued in September, Bulgaria’s Parliament drew the attention of the European Commission to the discriminative nature of dual food quality, meaning the two countries’ agriculture administrations also share a common denominator on this platform.

The negotiating partners also discussed the regulations of the current Land Trade Act, which is being objected to by the European Commission, in addition to cooperation between the two countries’ forestry research institutes. During the bilateral meeting, the parties also agreed that the Balkan country, which also takes part in Visegrád Group (V4) agriculture discussion, will be harmonising its EU-elated policies with Budapest in future.

(Ministry of Agriculture Press Office)