Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Svetlana Boyanova opened the first session of the thematic working group for preparation of the new Rural Development Programme for 2014-2020.

The group is tasked with pinpointing the priorities in agriculture and rural areas by 2020, formulating them in the Programme and making sure that Bulgarian legislation is timely harmonized with European law.

‘Our main objective will be to put together a programme for farmers and rural areas that will most adequately meet their real needs. And, most importantly, we shall try not to repeat the mistakes we made developing the current programme because, as you can see, they are very hard to mend,’ said Boyanova, who chairs the thematic working groups.

Almost 70 people of all stakeholders take part in the working group. These include representatives of government and municipal structures, the scientific community, social and environmental organisations, representatives of all agricultural sectors as well as the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

The working group will hold sessions at least every two months. According to the indicative schedule for developing the Programme, the first draft is to be sent for approval by the European Commission in September 2013, with the final draft due by December the same year.