Политика

‘After 2007 The European Union is ready to invest over 1 million in rural areas, and are you ready?". With this issue, on March 30 in Velingrad, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Mehmed Dikme, addressed representatives of regional and municipal governments. The Minister made a welcoming speech to the participants in the national conference "Bulgaria-European Union: Opportunities for Rural Development", held in Kleptuza Hall in Kamena. The organizer of the conference was the Institute of Public Administration and European Integration, whose Executive Director Assoc. Georgi Manliev said that the fruits of this forum should be more good projects under the SAPARD program. The participants were deputy governors, mayors and representatives of municipalities that enter the group "rural areas" (such according to the classification of municipalities is also Velingrad, but at the opening of the national conference there was no representative of it). They were also greeted in writing by the permanent representative of the United Nations Development Programme in Bulgaria, Neil Boone.
Bulgaria is at the end of the negotiation process for entry into the EU, but the main question is whether the society and the administration are prepared, Mr Dikme said. You have the unique chance to turn backward rural areas into prosperous, not in 20-30 years, but a few years after our entry into the EU to level our standard of living with that of the EU, the Minister addressed the people from the regional and municipal administrations. He repeatedly stressed his concern that mayors, municipal administrations and municipal councils are not sufficiently familiar and do not have the administrative capacity to prepare and implement SAPARD projects. His main advice to the municipality was to hurry up with the construction of such capacity, to make each municipality more independent and more flexible, because winning projects is a kind of competition. The state will help the municipalities, but let them not rely only on the state, because entering the EU means decentralization, the minister stressed.
Mr. Dikme outlined the current opportunities and prospects of SAPARD as a major program for subsidising agriculture specifically under the measures for rural areas. In their favour is the fact that the European Commission has entirely changed its agricultural policy by giving priority to rural areas. It proves the financial framework for Bulgarian agriculture, where the largest amount is for rural areas. Until 2007. SAPARD money for these areas amounts to 150 million euros. The scope of support will be expanded, with funds directed not only to infrastructure, but also to health and education in rural areas. A loan aimed directly at municipalities in rural areas also granted the World Bank.
Interest in SAPARD is growing avalanche, Mr. Dikme reported and hurried to add that it should not be applied on the Olympic principle because of participation, but to make justified projects with effect. In front of the mayors, the minister made the important comparison that there is much more money on SAPARD alone than those allocated by the state as a budget for capital expenditures. The minimum amount under SAPARD will be about 200 million euros and it will grow, M said. Dikme.
The policy of Bulgaria for the development of rural areas was presented by the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Meglena Plugchieva. She pointed out that 1092 projects totaling BGN 892 million have been approved under SAPARD so far. Under the new six measures of the program announced at the end of 2003, 8 projects of municipalities worth 11.5 million levs have already been approved. Ms. Plugchieva also spoke about other EU programmes that have the potential to help rural development.
The EU policy in this direction was presented in the report of Elena Artolachipi from the Delegation of the European Commission in Bulgaria. Experts from the ministries of agriculture and economy gave specific directions to the district and municipal leaderships on how to develop strategies for sustainable development, what are the requirements and good practices for preparation of successful SAPARD projects, what are the opportunities for development of eco-tourism in rural areas. The national report "The Rural Areas: Overcoming Unequal Development" of the United Nations Development Programme was also presented.
Elena Baeva