Fraud involving EU farm help gives Greek farmers more than 22 million euros, says minister
A minister revealed on Tuesday that Greek farmers had fabricated land ownership in order to steal EU agricultural subsidies worth over 22 million euros between 2019 and 2024, after a police probe rocked the government.
In July, Greek police seized the tax records of hundreds of thousands of farmers during a raid on the Athens offices of OPEKEPE, the government organization in charge of overseeing and disbursing EU subsidies.
In a televised statement on Tuesday, Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis said that after reviewing over 6,000 out of over 800,000 applications, police have discovered that hundreds of Greek farmers have stolen EU subsidies totaling at least 22.67 million euros ($26.54 million).
“We can’t and we should not tolerate people coveting precious public money, whether it’s state or European,” added Chrysochoidis. “It’s our duty… to activate all available mechanisms, to prevent, and whenever needed, investigate, identify and punish offenders.”
Hundreds of Greek stockbreeders who received EU financial aid were accused by European prosecutors in March of falsifying their pastureland ownership or leasing registrations.
Greece was fined 392 million euros by the EU in June for mishandling agricultural subsidies between 2016 and 2023 by OPEKEPE, which manages more than 2 billion euros in EU farm aid annually.
Senior OPEKEPE officials who have been the subject of investigations by EU prosecutors for their suspected involvement in the fraud have denied any wrongdoing. According to the government, in an effort to increase openness, OPEKEPE’s duties will shortly be turned over to Greece’s state revenue body.
The issue has been referred by EU prosecutors to the Greek parliament, which is the only body that can look into political matters. To investigate OPEKEPE’s management of the EU subsidies, the parliament will form a committee.
The controversy that has resulted in the resignation of four ministers who have denied any misconduct has caused the popularity of Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ conservative government, which was re-elected in 2023.
