Coalition leaders Marcel Čolaku and Nicolae Chuke said on Wednesday that they did not discuss the Social Democratic agriculture minister’s dismissal of APIA’s liberal Ionuts Lupu. Both said they were talking about a civil servant who does not hold a political position, and the sign was a minister, News.ro reported.

“I have not discussed with Mr. Lupu, this is an issue that is directly related to internal activities in the Ministry of Agriculture. To be honest, we really did not have time to discuss this aspect and I do not want to speculate,” Nicolae Chuke said, in on Wednesday, responding to questions about the firing of APIA director Liberal Ionuts Lupu.

He added that before commenting on the matter, he must have data on what happened.

For his part, the leader of the PSD, Marcel Čolaku, said that it was a civil servant.

“This is not a political position. I have never heard that Mr. Chuke and I have ever held public office. Both of us should have been arrested. This is an attribute of the minister, he is not even obliged to inform me,” said Prime Minister Marcel Cholaku.

He added that it is good that investigators are looking into possible violations of the law.

“If there are any illegal actions, I am very glad that DNA has been reported to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office,” Čolaku added, according to News.ro.

PSD Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu signed an order on Tuesday dismissing the head of the Agency for Payments and Interventions in Agriculture (APIA), liberal Ionuts Lupu.

• The Minister of APC dismissed the head of APIA. The reason given / How APIA Bucharest blocked the business “Stuful din Delta” related to the family of PSD baron Paul Stanescu

PSD Agriculture Minister Florin Barbou says the decision to fire liberal Ionuts Lupa as APIA chairman was his, and that he also discussed “his incompetence” in the party.

When asked about the complaint to DNA in which Ionuc Lupu alleged pressure on him to unblock the cane payments from Delta, Florin Barbu directed journalists to ask the ousted APIA chairman.

Responding to journalists’ questions on Wednesday about the dismissal of the head of APIA, PSD Agriculture Minister insisted that it was his decision: “It was my decision. We also discussed in the party. I said about the incompetence of Mr. Lupu. He managed to block 400 million euros in subsidy payments to Romanian farmers. And I made this decision.”

Bucharest’s APIA, led by liberal Ionuc Lupu, recently blocked a request for more than 5 million euros in a Danube Delta reed business from companies controlled by PSD leader Paulo Stanescu’s son and a former adviser to a Social Democrat senator. And the European Prosecutor’s Office connected to the phone, reports Știrile Pro TV. Agriculture Minister Florin Barbou was the one who pushed through the legislative amendment that would convert land in the delta into subsidized pastures.

According to some information that appeared in the public space, the son of Paul Stanescu was supposed to be the beneficiary of certain subsidies granted by APIA for the harvesting of cane in the Danube Delta, the Minister of Agriculture, Florin Barbu, said that he learned about this situation. from the press At that time, he said that all the complaints received by the ministry in this regard have been transferred to the supervisory body of the ministry, which will conduct inspections.

The business “Stuful din Delta”, linked to the family of PSD baron Paul Stanescu, has been blocked by APIA. Participation of Florin Barbu

Bucharest’s APIA, led by liberal Ionuc Lupu, recently blocked a request for more than 5 million euros in a Danube Delta reed business from companies controlled by PSD leader Paulo Stanescu’s son and a former adviser to a Social Democrat senator. And the European Prosecutor’s Office connected to the phone, reports Știrile Pro TV. Agriculture Minister Florin Barbou was the one who pushed through the legislative amendment that would convert land in the delta into subsidized pastures.

According to some information that has appeared in the public space, Paul Stanescu’s son was supposed to be the beneficiary of certain subsidies granted by APIA for the harvesting of cane in the Danube Delta, the Minister of Agriculture, Florin Barbu, said that he learned about this situation from the press. At that time, he said that all the complaints received by the ministry in this regard have been forwarded to the monitoring body of the ministry, which will conduct all the checks and the final report will be made public.

The Paying Agency in Agriculture and the European Commission launched inspections after the two companies, which also included PSD leader Paul Stanescu’s son Stefan Stanescu and the wife of a priest from Tulcea who was an adviser to Paul Stanescu, were shareholders.

Team “Romania, I love you!” showed in an October 2023 investigation how a legislative amendment proposed by the current Minister of Agriculture, Florin Barbu, would convert land in the delta into subsidized pasture.

At the initiative of the social democrat Florin Barbu, when he headed the agriculture committee of the Chamber of Deputies, in October 2023 the parliament secretly amended the law according to which tens of thousands of hectares of land in the Danube Delta were turned into meadows.

Parliamentarians quickly voted for the project, and later it was made public by President Klaus Iohannis.

Two companies that controlled cane cutting in the Delta applied for European money, and after the investigation, Stefan Stanescu and the priest’s wife left their shares in the two companies.

Florin Barbu said he did not know Stanescu’s son was a shareholder

“I did not know that the son of Mr. Paul Stenescu is in these companies for which the EU gave permission to pay for reed pastures in Romania. The control body checks documents for the legality of subsidies. We are not only talking about sugarcane, not only dairy cows, we are not only talking about vegetables, this applies to all subsidies in Romania,” said Florin Barbu, as quoted by Digi24.

According to Știrile Pro TV, a request for payment of 36,000 hectares of reeds in the Danube Delta for more than 5 million euros has been submitted to the Payment Agency in Agriculture. The payment was blocked due to the suspicion reported by the investigation “Romania, I love you!”.

APIA stopped paying the subsidy due to the fact that the money is paid to the companies holding the land concessions, not the activities carried out on the land, and the two companies did not concession the covered areas to the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Administration. reed, but only reed harvesting activities, according to G4Media.

APIA Tulcea approved the granting of subsidies, but APIA Bucharest started an audit to ensure that the institution was operating correctly.

Question marks about the submitted application for grants

APIA chairman Ionuc Lupu revealed that the file submitted by the two companies raises many questions. They did not grant the land concession, as required by law, and failed to harvest the stated amount of green cane, as the law again allows it to be cut only in winter, when it is already dry and inedible for animals, Digi24 notes.

Florin Barbou denied that he would have asked Ionutz Lupa to leave APIA after overseeing the situation with these funds, Digi24 reports.

Paul Stenescu is a PSD senator since 2016, general secretary of the party led by Marcel Colacu, PSD Olt leader and former president of the Olt County Council.

He is one of the most powerful and influential leaders of the PSD and a close friend of Gabriela Firea, former minister of the family and current PSD senator.

Florin Barbu, the current Minister of Agriculture, was nominated to the government by Paul Stanescu, according to the central media.