The European Commission has demanded that 98 SAPARD projects must be frozen and added to the list of debtors in Bulgaria.

This has been announced Wednesday by the press office of the Ministry of Agriculture, Darik Radio reported.

However, the Ministry will ask for a month period in which the Prosecutor’s Office to finish the check-ups. Part of the investigated companies are in the meat processing business.

Experts from the European Commission agriculture directorate and OLAF, the EU anti-fraud watchdog, start a visit to Bulgaria on July 29 to decide whether payments worth millions of euros under the EU-backed program SAPARD should be restarted.

The European Union froze reimbursements in agricultural funding last year, saying Bulgaria fails to curb frauds with EU funds.