Bulgaria will soon see a full plan for how the country uses its land, followed by several round-table talks — only after that will officials draft the actual legal text. Agriculture minister Plamen Abrovski told Bulgarian National Radio.

Work on the plan should take about six months. "Land law is the most conservative and outdated area there is," Abrovski said on the show "Before Everyone Else". The system works, he explained, but it serves neither landowners nor farmers, and everyone is unhappy with it.

Right now almost all land contracts run for just one year, because owners fear they won't get paid. The minister wants everyone to agree before any text becomes law.

The Food Safety Agency has published an animal vaccination plan, now open for public comment. Vaccination will start once the plan's thresholds are reached. Abrovski said vaccination is not a cure-all but one part of a wider set of steps, and the public consultation lets farmers, industry, scientists, officials and ordinary people have their say.

Checks for "virtual animals" happen every day and have never stopped, the minister added. Officials are looking at turning one region into a pilot area where every animal would get a GPS tracker. "This hasn't been done anywhere in the EU. It could become the official way animals are identified across the whole bloc," Abrovski said.

The Forestry Agency will merge with the Fisheries and Aquaculture Agency by the end of the year, a move the Agriculture Federation at the Podkrepa trade union confederation opposes. Abrovski said the Fisheries Agency is barely functioning right now and gave assurances the merger won't weaken the specialised administration — on the contrary, he said, there will be more staff out in the field.

EU farm ministers are meeting in Brussels. For Bulgaria, the main issue there is the Common Agricultural Policy regulation, which is expected to be finalised.

Bulgaria will also ask for special support for its rose industry. The minister said the goal is to make the EU understand that Bulgaria has something unique, unmatched anywhere else in the world.

Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus and Romania will jointly call on the European Commission to review livestock farming rules, in particular how the EU handles disease control.