Athens has returned €670 mln to Brussels
The Greek state has been called upon to repay a total of approximately 670 million euros over the last 15 years, mainly due to irregularities and lack of controls in the system for calculating agricultural subsidies, financing within the framework of rural development programs, but also due to illegal actions in the programs for promoting Greek products.
This is the total amount resulting from the 43 executive decisions issued by the European Commission from 2010 to 2024, decisions for the exclusion from community financing of expenditures made within the framework of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).
The most recent is that issued on November 13, 2024 and concerns the exclusion – essentially a refund – from community financing of an amount of over €60 million due to problems in the implementation of cross-compliance for 2019-2022, as well as in the granting of aid within the framework of development programs.
The €670 million figure was arrived at after deducting the amounts returned to Greece following the relevant decisions of the Court of Justice of the EU. It concerns the financial years from 2004 to 2023, given that the relevant decisions from Brussels are taken at a relative delay, while similar decisions exist in the years before 2004, proving that the problem of controlling the awarding of agricultural subsidies in Greece is timeless, with expediency, unfortunately, prevailing over insufficiency.
It is no coincidence, moreover, as is evident from the relevant annual reports of the European Court of Auditors (ECA), that if before the creation of the national agricultural payments organization (OPEKEPE) the issue was mainly in the agricultural cooperatives, which managed agricultural subsidies as they pleased, after the establishment of the apparently “sinful” organization the problems remained. In fact, the ECA kept issuing warnings, accusing the Commission of lifting its reservations prematurely against the Greek paying agency.
Kathimerini
