ATHENS — The European Commission has hit Greece with a fine of nearly €400 million for mismanaging EU farm funding and inadequate controls.
Brussels has ordered Athens to to forfeit €392.2 in EU funding due to systemic failings in its management of EU farm subsidies between 2016 and 2023. The Greek agency responsible for overseeing EU farm payments is also accused of making payments without sufficient checks or on-site inspections.
The fine follows a mammoth Greek farm fraud scandal that is being probed by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, and was the subject of a POLITICO investigation earlier this year.
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.
Last month, the Greek government announced it would shut down OPEKEPE, the state agency under investigation. European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi, in comments to POLITICO, vowed to press ahead with an inquiry into the fraud scheme despite what she described as “attacks” and “intimidation” against her staff.
“The vilification of our country continues and its credibility vis-à-vis the European institutions is plummeting,” Greece’s main opposition leader Nikos Androulakis said in a statement.
According to the decision, dated June 11, the European Commission has imposed a flat-rate correction of 5 percent on all Greek direct subsidies over a lack of effective supervision.
For specific categories such as young farmer schemes from 2018 to 2020, that correction rises to 10 percent. The two largest annual penalties, €79 million and €76 million, target area-based payments made in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
The fines affect several different subsidies, including direct payments, small farmer schemes, eco-schemes, and voluntary coupled support measures. All were found to suffer from insufficient compliance with EU criteria.
Greece was expected to receive some €1.9 billion in direct payments from the EU next year, but around a quarter of that will now be cut, due to the fine.
Last March the General Court of the European Union dismissed a Greek appeal against a similar set of sanctions, upholding the European Commission’s findings and ordering Greece to pay court costs.
The current decision is not directly involved to the investigations into fraudulent pastureland claims. According to Greek agriculture officials, more fines are expected to follow.
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