The parliament will discuss at first reading a Bill to supplement the Water Act, submitted by Desislava Taneva (GERB-SDF) and a group of MPs. This is the first item on the adopted program of the National Assembly for today's plenary day.
The proposed texts create a legal basis for the Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MAF) to begin a procedure for notifying state aid to compensate for the costs of irrigation water. This will allow for the continuation of support for agricultural producers this year, which has so far been under the discontinued so-called “Ukrainian aid“, the submitters point out.
The bill proposes that the obligation to perform a public service for supplying water for irrigation be assigned to "Irrigation Systems" EAD by the Minister of Agriculture and Food through a contract. The company will receive compensation from the state budget when the fulfillment of this obligation represents an unfair financial burden for it, and the compensation cannot exceed the amount of the burden. The amount of the burden will be determined based on the net costs calculated according to a methodology adopted by the Council of Ministers. The compensation funds will be provided to "Irrigation Systems" EAD in advance for the current year through the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and will be reported to the ministry accordingly.
In 1999, the areas suitable for irrigation were over 7 million decares managed by "Irrigation Systems" EAD is a state hydro-ameliorative fund, and to date it is possible to supply water to over 2.5 million decares. During the last completed irrigation season, "Irrigation Systems" EAD has supplied water to 334 thousand decares, it is also stated in the motives for the bill.
The first reading of two bills amending the Statistics Act is also on the agenda of the parliament. One was submitted by Bozhidar Bozhanov ("We continue the change-Democratic Bulgaria") and a group of MPs, and the other - by Delyan Dobrev and Nikolay Nankov from GERB-SDF. The changes aim to introduce a single entry point information system, through which to streamline the process of submitting annual financial statements of enterprises.
The agenda of the National Assembly for today also includes bills for the ratification of agreements for the implementation of the Interreg VI-A 2021-2027 program between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.