What did he say about the delay in OPEKEPE payments?
“We must make an effort not to get to vaccination, because if we get there we will be talking about another reality,” said the Minister of Rural Development and Food. Kostas Tsiaras in an interview with the TV station SKAI, referring to the smallpox of sheep and goats.
He pointed out that the vaccine is not the solution, because the dominant product of Greek livestock farming which is feta, “a unique PDO product with huge export potential, will be affected in a second or third year”.
Regarding vaccination, he noted that any decision will be taken by the National Scientific Committee for the Management and Control of Smallpox andwarned that if the country proceeds with vaccination, it will lose its “smallpox-free” status, which will affect exports. He recalled that countries such as Turkey and Israel, which implemented the vaccine, “have not come out of smallpox for many years”, as he said.
As he pointed out, a scientific committee has already been set up to guide the Ministry in the next steps, while at the same time a network of direct support measures for livestock farmers is being implemented, with a bill being introduced for a vote in the Parliament.
These include:
– The granting of 22 million euros in additional compensations for killing animals.
– The establishment of non-seizure for the compensation amounts.
– The ability to advance compensation directly to the breeders.
– Compensations up to 250 euros for purebred animals, the highest in the European Union.
– Livestock reconstruction program in the second phase.
For him OKAY and payments, Mr. Tsiaras clarified that “there are two letters from the European Commission that clearly set the scene: if checks are not done before each payment, the flow of European money could be at risk.” As he said, “the effort being made is an effort of serious consolidation and very important reform”, clarifying that the delay in payments is solely due to the obligation to carry out the appropriate checks, as requested by the European Union.
Finally, in what the former prime minister, Antonis Samaras, said, he said that he respects all former prime ministers, “but we have to look at reality. And the reality today, under the leadership of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the ND is a dominant political force, that as a government in recent years it has managed to change the course of a bad reality for our country, that at this moment Greece is neither the last country in Europe, nor the scapegoat, as it was in the previous decade.
On the contrary, it is a Greece that grows, creates, that has high growth rates. It is a Greece that is making important reforms by confronting decades-old pathologies even at great political cost. It is a Greece that is being modernized, digitized. It is a Greece that has upgraded its role and presence on the general European and world stage. It is a Greece that has managed to significantly strengthen its defense capacity. This is the reality and it cannot be denied by anyone. Even from those who criticize or are politically opposed to the ND, they cannot ignore that Greece has changed course, no matter how many difficulties and challenges there are.”