Owners of farmland known as "white spots" should be able to check easily how much money they are owed and get a clear deadline for payment, ombudsman Velislava Delcheva has insisted. "White spots" are plots whose owners have not claimed payment for the use of their land.
She spoke out over changes to Article 37v, paragraph 7 of the Law on the Ownership and Use of Agricultural Land, which took effect on 25 September. Under the change, money that owners have not claimed for 10 years goes to a third-party funds account in the budget of the State Fund Agriculture. There it joins the Mutual Aid Fund, which pays for ways to cut risk in farming.
Delcheva sent her opinion to Yavor Gechev, chair of parliament's agriculture committee. Copies went to agriculture minister Plamen Abrovski and Silvia Georgieva, executive director of the National Association of Municipalities.
The ombudsman wants MPs to consider the rights of "white spot" owners when they debate further changes to the same law. She says farming the land must not come at the cost of people's right to be paid for the use of their own property.
The sums are not small. Agriculture Ministry data from 2018 puts the total at about €40.9m (80m leva).
The bill passed its first reading on 24 September. Georgi Georgiev of the Progressive Bulgaria parliamentary group put it forward. It won 126 votes from MPs of Progressive Bulgaria and Vazrazhdane, plus one each from GERB-SDS and We Continue the Change. No one voted against, and 46 MPs from GERB-SDS, DPS, Democratic Bulgaria and PP abstained.
Separately, on 17 September parliament passed at second reading changes to the Law on Support for Agricultural Producers. They allow the State Fund Agriculture to help farmers in bad weather and other adverse climate events, using money from the Mutual Aid Fund.