Participants in the round table included representatives of Bulgarian institutions, university lecturers, and branch organizations, civil and non-governmental organizations in the agricultural, livestock breeding and processing sectors. The first panel concentrated on the new legislative proposals of the EP regarding the CAP, and the second focused on the topic “CAP and education”.

Bulgaria's main concern about the EU Common agricultural policy (CAP) is to keep the bloc's agricultural budget unchanged at 418 billion euro in the 2014-2020 period, said Deputy Agriculture and Food Minister Svetlana Boyanova.

A key presentation was made by the MEP Mariya Gabriel, a full time member of the Commission on Agriculture and Rural development in the EP.

During her presentation, Mariya Gabriel emphasized on the number of proposed legislative amendments – 7415, which according to her is a clear signal that so far there is no unified position of the EP on the agricultural policy and every member state will do its best to protect his interest.

Ms Gabriel also underlined the legislative packet of the European Commission which consists of 7 proposals for regulations aiming to achieve three key goals: more justice, more simplicity and a greener CAP.

Ms Gabriel also pointed out the key priorities for Bulgaria, the most important of which is the demand for stronger first pillar for direct payments in order to end the inequality between the old and the new members. “The current Commission proposal for 30% increase is very far from what we expected”, stated Ms Gabriel.

According to her, other key priorities are reaching a national cap during 2014 unlike the current suggestion this to take place in 2016, more flexible green measures which take into account the individual needs of each member state, flexibility and potential for transferring money between the pillars, encouragement of young farmers up to 40 years of age and double increase of the payment capping.

The panel devoted to young people and education – “CAP and education” the official guest Dr. Maya Ninova, State expert at the “Rural Development”, Directorate with Ministry of Agriculture and Food was answering questions related to poor facilities available to agricultural schools and ways to motivate young people to continue farming after graduation.

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