11/12/2013
A new study titled Development in agriculture and rural areas of Bulgaria: From implementing full EU CAP in the first seven years of full EU membership and the potentials for improvements by Iordan Velikov provides a comprehensive analysis of development and the rural areas in Bulgaria.
It has been commissioned by the Regional Project of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) for Labour Relations and Social Dialogue in South East Europe in cooperation with the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT).
Its aim is to contribute to finding solutions for the further development and modernisation of agribusiness into a competitive sector providing jobs and income with decent working conditions in Bulgaria and the Western Balkans Region.
This paper is closely linked to the study of Radmila Grozdanic about the situation and possible perspectives of agribusiness in the Western Balkan countries, also published by FES and EFFAT this year, which has already contributed significantly to the evaluation of the performance of this economic sector in the region.
Both, the FES and EFFAT hope that these two studies may contribute to the encouragement of all political authorities and social stakeholders in order to develop and promote the potential of the agriculture and the food sectors in this region.
In this respect FES, EFFAT and the Regional Council of the Agriculture Trade Unions in South East Europe together organized in Ohrid/Macedonia in November 2013 a conference about the perspectives of the agribusiness in South East Europe where both papers were presented and discussed. The Regional Council decided at
the conference to prepare a common declaration with the vision and the demands of the trade unions vis-à-vis the agribusiness in South East Europe.