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Violeta Blazheva
The Bulgarian Agrarian Sector in the Context
of the “Updated” Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union
Summary:
The political agreement reached between the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers of the European Union and the European Commission is expected to lead to significant changes that mark the starting point of the European policy designed to address the challenges of the security of food supplies, climate change, growth and employment in rural regions. In this aspect, this paper focuses on the reform that is being carried out by CAP in 2013 in the context of the new pro¬gramming period 2014-2020. Priority is given to forthcoming changes in the Bulgarian agricultural sector regarding the implementation of the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union. It has been proposed to group changes in CAP, which would facilitate the inclusion of the adjusted measures in designing agrarian policy in Bulgaria. The upcoming reform is aimed at achieving a more equitable distribution of resources. It is expected that each member state of the Com-munity should not receive less than 75% of the (average) funds provided by the European Union. The new rules will come into force from January 2014.
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Stoyan Prodanov, Dimitrina Lyubenova Prodanova
BULGARIA’S COVERAGE WITH LOCAL INITIATIVE GROUPS – A SPATIAL ANALYSIS
Summary:
This research focuses on the innovative LEADER approach within the Common agricultural policy of the EU which is widely used for the decentralized and at the same time integrated development of rural regions in each member state. Theoretically, the LEADER approach is part of the endogenous theory of economic development and plays an important role in achieving the social, economic and now climatic aims as a specific European model of stimulating the inclusion of communities in local development. From a spatial point of view, the LEADER approach has been applied at the level of municipality or unified neighboring municipalities and/or neighboring settlements-part of a municipality/ies with a population between 10,000 and 150,000 inhabitants by local initiative groups (LIG). Bulgaria’s Program for the development of rural regions 2014–2020 adopts the national definition according to which rural regions are defined at the municipal level (LAU 1) and comprise the territory of 231 municipalities in which the largest town has a population of 30,000 inhabitants. The analysis of the spatial coverage of rural regions with LIG shows the negative effect of the admission of typically urban municipalities within the territories which receive funding through the LEADER network. To eliminate those inaccuracies in determining the policies for the development of rural regions, we propose and test variants to change this arguable, too streamlined and non-corresponding to scientific thought definition of a rural region.
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Tanya Gorcheva
Reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy and Benefits to Bulgaria
Summary:
The paper deals with issues related to the evolution of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union (CAP) and the process of reforms the policy has been undergoing. It also provides a retrospective analysis in order to outline both favourable and adverse aspects of the impact which CAP has had on the development of the agricultural sector in Europe in general and in Bulgaria in particular. It is thus possible to highlight the benefits which our country could gain from those reforms by taking into consideration changes in existing regulations and the implementation of related policy instruments. The paper also reviews what was achieved in our country in the 2007-2013 programme period in result of implementing the CAP. Finally, it outlines expectations related to Bulgarian agriculture for the next programme period in terms of the changes introduced into that policy by the European Commission.
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Marina Nikolova, Marusya Stancheva Linkova
STATE AND PROBLEMS IN THE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Summary:
The international scientific and practical conference on “State and Problems in the Management and Development of Agriculture” held in Svishtov on 4 October 2019 attracted a great number of Bulgarian and foreign scholars who work in the field of agriculture as well as representatives of the business in the agricultural sector. The scientific forum was attended by 83 representatives from nine countries and three continents; they presented 68 papers dealing with the organization and management of investments and innovations, entrepreneurial initiatives and diversification in the agricultural business, financial and accounting aspects, marketing, distribution and trade, information technologies, ecologization and sustainable development, legal and socio-cultural barriers of the general agricultural policy of the European Union. In the discussions during the scientific forum, we identified, analysed and assessed the current problems that accompany the development of agriculture and made specific proposals for their solutions on the basis of the expert capacity of the scientific community and the institutions that manage the agricultural sector in Bulgaria, as well as the needs of the agricultural business.
