The Ministry of Agriculture’s control body is investigating possible reed subsidy fraud

The Minister of Agriculture, Florin Barbu, ordered an investigation by the Control Body in order to verify the legality of granting subsidies for paludiculture. This comes after the information that Ștefan Stănescu, the son of the PSD leader Paul Stănescu, would have been the beneficiary of requests sent by two companies for the granting of 5 million euros in subsidies for reed harvesting in the Danube Delta. The Minister of Agriculture requested that Antifraud inspectors be part of the control team.

“The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Florin Barbu, ordered an investigation by the Control Body in order to verify the legality of the granting of subsidies for paludiculture, considering the information that appeared in the public space regarding the method of granting this new type of subsidies. The Minister of Agriculture requested that Antifraud inspectors be part of the control team.

We remind you that, during the development of the intervention sheets within the PNS 2023-2027, several technical consultative meetings were organized, with the role of ensuring, on the one hand, the transparency of the decision-making process in relation to the relevant partners, and, on the other hand, to include their contributions in the process of developing the programmatic document with the aim of ensuring the efficiency and improving the addressability of future interventions. Thus, within this extensive consultation process, MADR received several requests from the associative environment regarding the possibility of financing the paludiculture activity – reed harvesting. This type of support is also granted by other states in the European Union, namely Austria, France, Lithuania or Sweden.

Following the analysis carried out by MADR regarding the possibility of financing the areas where the reed harvesting activity takes place, the following were found: From the scientific materials developed by the specialized institute INCDDD Tulcea, it is found that paludiculture has beneficial effects both for the environment and from an economic point of view”, according to a press release sent by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Among the beneficiaries of this reef subsidy deal is the son of PSD leader Paul Stănescu. Two companies with which he has close ties requested a subsidy for reed harvesting in the Danube Delta. A first in agriculture, made possible by the competition of the Parliament, the Ministry of Agriculture and other institutions. Now the whole procedure is checked by the Agency for Payments in Agriculture, but also by the European Commission.

Minister Barbu claims that he did not know that the son of PSD leader Paul Stănescu, Ștefan Stănescu, is among the beneficiaries of the subsidy.