Illegal aid
The EPPO dossier describes a “criminal organization” comprising officials from Greece’s agency for distributing EU subsidies, OPEKEPE, along with individuals and MPs who illegally received EU agricultural subsidies, according to officials who have viewed it.
In a 36-page note in English attached to the file, EPPO states that officials at OPEKEPE and the Agriculture Ministry, together with people in business, “acted in an organized manner in order to establish a system of non-controls and obtain or facilitate the receipt of illegal aid.”
EPPO said former Agriculture Minister Lefteris Avgenakis (center) should face further legal investigation. | Olivier Hoslet/EPA
“The extent of this fabrication of payment entitlements and the total damage to EU funds has not yet been fully assessed,” EPPO notes. “Nevertheless, at this state of play of the investigation, there are reasonable grounds to believe that it has been a large-scale scheme.”
Even though the extent of damages has not been assessed, Brussels has ordered Greece to forfeit nearly €400 million in funding — over a fifth of the direct payments it had been due to receive next year.
EPPO said two former agriculture ministers — Lefteris Avgenakis and Makis Voridis, who later served as state minister reporting directly to the prime minister — should face further legal investigation over the suspected misappropriation of EU funds. They both reject the claims.
According to the dossier, the then-president of OPEKEPE, Grigoris Varras, described the problem with the fake pastureland in two letters to Voridis in 2020. He was forced to resign by Voridis, who remained in government until this June when he too resigned after the EPPO submitted its dossier to parliament.