The appeal for the fine of 415m euros imposed in Greece by the Commission for illegal subsidies of OPECEPE heralded the Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Food Christos Kellas.
Speaking to ERTNews, Mr. Kellas He said that the basic is whether there are criminal liability, stating that if there are evidence on this issue “of course and we will go below”. However, he accused the opposition of calling for pre -trial investigation before even seeing the file.
So far the payments of OPECEPE They were carried out with indicative checks of 3%, and there were gaps in the system. The government’s decision is to eliminate these phenomena and to have transparency in order to collect money and subsidies those who really produce. The government is determined to clarify this issue once and already in the bill of the Ministry of Finance, which is under consultation, are the provisions on the transfer of OPEKEPE to AADE, he added.
The problem is European
According to Mr Kella, fines of 850 million drachmas were then fined in the Greek government at the time of 1996 – 2004, and now we have the administrative fine imposing 415 million. He clarified that the fine is for bad administrative act And it has nothing to do with fake paper or wrong subsidies. The fine is purely administrative and of course Greece will appeal, Mr Kellas said, stating that 17 other countries have similar fines.
“There were no grazing plans because they had been given to the regions for four years without doing anything. They returned to the ministry and now the competition is being announced to have grazing plans. But we couldn’t have grazing plans when we didn’t have forest maps. We could not have grazing plans. When there was no Land Registry and Opekepen had a comprehensive information system, “he said.
“The Prime Minister’s mandate was to clarify the issue with OPECEPE”
According to Mr. Kella, The problem began with ministerial decisions of 2015 and 2017, when they were given the opportunity to take pastures and subsidies of breeders without animals and this thing overwhelmed. ‘We have abolished this in the New Democracy, Being able to get animal subsidies, “he added.
“From 2024 when we took over at the Ministry of Rural Development, Mr. Tsiaras came into contact with immediate contact, because the Prime Minister’s mandate was to clarify the issue with OPECEPE and to receive the subsidies who really produce. The minister put OPEKEPE under his supervision, came into consultation with both the Directorate -General for Rural Development and with the European Commissioner and put an action plan for an integrated information system, grazing plans, intensive controls and staff hiring, because six hundred people do not.
Payments and “overflowing organic farming”
On the payments of the beneficiaries said the amounts would be paid from Monday to Wednesday but not the new invitation to the organic farming and biological livestock farming And the ecosystems that will be controlled because there were complaints.
“On the one hand in organic farming we have a very large number that has overflowed. The number of acres in which biological livestock shows, cannot be 930,000 acres in an area and the next second area may be 160,000 acres. The numbers also look at beekeeping. It is not the excessive number of hives, but there can be no such a large increase in organic beekeeping from one year to another, “he said.