EU could decrease agriculture funds for Bulgaria and Romania by 25 per cent for a one-year period if the two countries failed creating reliable control systems, mediapool.bg reported.

Such decrease would be considered an instrument to be used only if necessary in case it is implemented, an EC representative said.

In the beginning of September EU observers mentioned agriculture fund decreasing as a possible safeguard clause for Bulgaria and Romania’s insufficient readiness to join the EU.

The mentioning of safeguard clauses in the EC monitoring report did not necessarily imply the enforcement of such, agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel said.

EC would present its decision on agriculture funds on September 26 2006 together with the report on Bulgaria’s readiness to join the EU, Reuters said quoted by mediapool.bg.