New revelations have emerged regarding the use of chemical pesticides banned in the EU by a Bulgarian agricultural family clan. Not only have large numbers of bees died due to the usage, but three children had to be hospitalized with symptoms of poisoning.
An earlier investigation by Euractiv in northern Bulgaria initially focused only on a massive bee poisoning incident last spring, but it now appears that EU subsidy fraud may also be involved in this case. At the time, a few children were playing outside in the fields in Dolna Mitropolia and barely paid attention to a tractor spraying the adjacent fields.
A few hours later, the mother of one of the children noticed that her son’s face had become completely red and swollen. The boy was rushed to the hospital, where doctors concluded that he had been poisoned, along with three other children.
Many beekeepers in the town also confirmed cases of dead bees on that particular day, and one beekeeper filed a complaint. He sent samples to a private laboratory. The samples showed residues of carbendazim, benomyl, epoxiconazole, thiofanate-methyl, and florasulam. Carbendazim has not been re-approved for use in the EU since 2016. The analysis also found traces of the active substances clothianidin and thiamethoxam, both banned throughout the EU.
A Euractiv TV report now reveals that Stefan Stoyanov is the landowner of both sprayed fields. Until 2013, he worked as a senior expert for the Bulgarian State Fund for Agriculture, while the land’s tenant was the company ‘Helga – Svetla Stoyanova’, owned by his mother.
Stoyanov later became manager of a consulting firm that advised the Ministry of Agriculture when substantial amounts of EU subsidies were approved for his mother’s company. It has also emerged that one of her sons-in-law works at the apiculture directorate of the State Fund for Agriculture.
The agricultural business benefits, like many others, from the EU’s rural development subsidy program and direct payments under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. The large, modern farming facility was built with the help of European funds.
The Bulgarian newspaper Farmer named Svetla Stoyanova ‘Agri-Businesswoman of the Year’ in 2018. The company also operates a hotel and a modern office building. Both the State Fund for Agriculture and the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency fall under the supervision of the Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture, Food Supply and Forestry.
The Agency did not impose a fine on the company and concluded that all substances found in the plant samples are permitted in both the EU and Bulgaria. The European Parliament recently established a dedicated permanent committee to investigate the abuse of EU subsidies.
This investigative committee was partly set up after it became evident that many EU agricultural subsidies in various Eastern European countries ended up in the hands of large agricultural companies owned by a few businessmen, former officials, and ex-politicians. This case of bee deaths, use of banned chemicals, and concentration of EU subsidies has now also been reported to this new EP committee.