ATHENS — Greece’s government announced on Tuesday it would shut down a state agency being investigated by the European prosecutor over a major alleged fraud involving the EU’s massive farm budget.
Earlier this week, European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi, in comments to POLITICO, vowed to press ahead with a probe into the fraud scheme despite what she described as “attacks” and “intimidation” against her staff.
In dramatic scenes last week, EU officials from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office met physical resistance from employees of the Greek state agency OPEKEPE, which is responsible for doling out farm funds and lies at the heart of the investigation. Last Friday, the government was forced to fire OPEKEPE’s president for failing to cooperate with the EU probe.
EPPO is pursuing dozens of cases in which Greek citizens received EU agricultural funds for pastureland they did not own or had not leased, or for agricultural work they never did, depriving real farmers of the cash they deserved. The multi-year, multimillion-euro scam was the subject of a POLITICO investigation earlier this year.
The Greek government said in a statement that the farm payments — along with the related checks and controls — will be conducted via the Independent Authority for Public Revenues, where the staff of OPEKEPE will also be transferred.
“After efforts to modernize OPEKEPE internally, which did not yield the expected results, the government, in cooperation with the European authorities … is proceeding with determination to address the problem once and for all,” it said.
The goal is to have full integration completed in the second half of 2026; the relevant legislation will be submitted by July.
OPEKEPE has been under EU supervision since September 2024 because of noncompliance with operational standards and risked losing its certification to manage EU funds in July when EU authorities visit Athens to monitor progress.
The post Greece shuts down agency at center of probe into massive EU farm fraud appeared first on Politico.
