There will be no Bulgarian counter-blockade at the border after the proposed action was overruled by Blagoevgrad municipal administration, Bulgarian National Television was quoted as saying on February 1 2010.

The Bulgarian National Business Association (BNBA) had threatened to blockade the Bulgarian end of the border on February 1 and prevent any Greek vehicle from passing through. Their desire to stage a counter blockade, however, appears to have been thwarted.

Initially, according to the BNT, the BNBA contemplated shutting down the border completely as a "warning measure". However, following a meeting between BNBA representatives and the Blagoevgrad municipal councillor, the plan was abandoned.

"The councillor told us that we cannot stage the protest at this level. If we do, the country may lose its compensation case with the European Union," Svetlozar Nikolov, head of the BNBA was quoted as saying.

On January 20, Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Naidenov sent a letter to the European Commission along with his Romanian counterpart, Mihail Dumitru, in which they demanded that the EC take immediate action against Greece because its farmers are violating the constitutional right to free movement across borders, both of businesses and civilians.

One week later, on January 27, The European Commission (EC) said that it could implement punitive measures against Athens in the wake of the deteriorating situation on the Greek-Bulgarian border caused by the blockades.

"The Greek government has violated European legislature by not providing Bulgaria and the European Commission with a timely warning for the blockade. Greece had an obligation to provide alternative routes for the freight of goods," Jonathan Todd, spokesperson for the commission, was quoted as saying. "The EC could launch penal proceedings, but the decision will be made only after all facts become available," said Todd.

Now, in the latest developments, a meeting is scheduled to take place between BNBA representatives and members of the Greek farmers in the late afternoon or evening of February 1.

"We will tell the Greeks that if they don't lift the border immediately, we will block the border completely in July," Nikolov said.

"We believe the Greeks will come to heel because the public outcry is becoming too much to bear. They have to realise that if we shut their borders in the summer, the Greeks will lose a lot more that Bulgaria is losing now," BNT quoted him as saying.

During the meeting with the Greek farmers, the BNBA will "expect" to have Bulgarian officials present at the talks.

Meanwhile, the Greek farmers have made it clear that the blockade will not be lifted unless the Greek government agrees to their terms.

According to the Greek daily Kahtimerini, the farmers have made the following demands to Greek agriculture minister Katerina Batzeli:
"The immediate disbursement of compensation for lost income and the announcement of minimum prices for crops; the protection of domestic agricultural produce from the competition posed by foreign imports; the reduction of rising production costs through the abolition of value-added tax on agricultural supplies and machinery and the scrapping of tax on fuel; the imposition of a three-year freeze on the repayment of farmers’ loans; and the reduction of the minimum retirement age to 60 for men and 55 for women."

Those demands were put forward in the aftermath of the farmers' refusal to accept the proposed measures by the Greek government, which envisaged that one billion euro from the 28-billion-euro rescue package, designed to salvage the Greek banking sector, should be poured into the farming sector.