Elena Yoncheva
Elena Nikolova Yoncheva is a Bulgarian freelance journalist and former Bulgarian National Television correspondent, who has reported from many conflict areas. Yoncheva has authored more than 25 TV documentaries on these conflicts, and while reporting from Iraq in 2003, she had a narrow escape from tragedy being rescued from armed civilians by an Iraqi official. In June 2013, she was injured by a tear-gas grenade while reporting from Istanbul, Turkey.
Yoncheva was born on 27 May 1964 in Sofia, to parents Nikola and Larisa. She datеd Sergey Stanishev, former Prime Minister of Bulgaria, between 1994 and 2009; they had known each other since their student years in Moscow, Russia. She has reported from Kosovo, Algeria, Chechnya, Israel, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Colombia and other hot spots. Yoncheva has also authored a documentary on the Bulgarian Antarctic base, the Roma in Lom and on other topics. In 2008, she became a participant in bTV's television series Dancing Stars. Since October 2013, she is co-anchor of TV7's show "The Original", together with Ivan Garelov. Yoncheva filmed the documentary "The Border" which denounces the trafficking of migrants through Bulgaria, which is allegedly facilitated by Bulgarian authorities.
She was elected to the European Parliament on the Bulgarian Socialist Party ticket, during the 2019 European Parliament election in Bulgaria. She is a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Subcommittee on Security and Defense, the Delegation for relations with Israel, and the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean. As part of her campaign for a Member of the European Parliament, she shared evidence allegedly proving corruption in the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture.
