(SOFIA) - Bulgaria has resumed payments to farmers hit by an EU agricultural aid freeze with money from the state budget, state agriculture fund chief executive Atanas Kanchev said Tuesday.

"Payments of subsidies under the frozen measures of the (EU agricultural) Sapard programme were officially resumed Monday," Kanchev said.

He added that payments remained to be made for a total of 809 already approved farming projects worth 307 million leva (157 million euros).

These included some 474 projects worth about 200 million leva (102 million euros) under the three measures frozen by the European Commission earlier this year over concerns of mismanagement and corruption.

The freeze was aimed at punishing Bulgaria for failing to guarantee transparent distribution of the funds and prevent fraud.

But farmers' protests forced the government to get EU permission to pay the 200 million leva on the frozen measures from the state budget, regardless of whether the EU would unblock the funds.

Kanchev said that the resuming of payments would allow farmers to avoid bankruptcy by paying back loans taken out to fund their projects.

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