The lone Slovenian sugar plant is entitled to funds from the EU restructuring fund when it stops producing sugar under the 2005 EU sugar reform, the Agriculture Ministry told STA on Wednesday.
The Slovenian government is expected to send the restructuring plan for Tovarna sladkorja Ormoz to the European Commission at the end of this month, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, Slovenia expects to get EUR 38.9m from the restructuring fund that was established in line with the EU sugar reform adopted in November 2005. The European Commission is to set the final figure after it gets the restructuring plan from Slovenia.
The for Tovarna sladkorja Ormoz are to be divided among farmers, who are to get EUR 3.9m, and employees, who will get EUR 8.255m in severance pay. The remainder of the money is to be used for closing the plant in the northeastern Slovenian town of Ormoz.
Meanwhile, the ministry said the aid from the EU is subject to a bond of 120% of the value of the aid that can be cashed in case of abuse of the aid.
Slovenia's sole sugar factory will stop producing sugar from sugar beet in 2007, after the EU-wide sugar reform made sugar production in Slovenia unprofitable.
Efforts are underway to have the plant converted to biofuel production. Jurij Dogsa, the chairman of sugar factory Tovarna sladkorja Ormoz, said recently that the plant would have to undergo a EUR 35m overhaul in order for it to be able to produce 50,000 cubic metres of bioethanol a year.
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