Bulgaria will receive the full sum for EU agriculture funding for 2007, amounting to more than 250 million euro, the European Commission (EC) decided.

Agriculture and Food Minister Nihat Kabil expressed special gratitude to EC Agriculture and Rural Development (ARI) commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel for the “high and fare evaluation,” Focus news agency said.

According to Boel, Bulgaria could guarantee the absorption of the EU funds for direct payments. Boel’s conclusions were based on an examinations by the directorate-general AGRI in Bulgaria in june and September 2007.

I promised not to let Bulgarian agriculture be subjected to a safeguard clause and I kept my promise, Kabil said.

The next goal of the Agriculture and Food ministry was the launch of a programme for development of rural regions, which has to revive local agriculture by 2013, Kabil said.