“I was never afraid of transparency, I imposed it”
About his scandal OKAY spoke to the Parliament on Wednesday, November 5 o Lefteris Avgenakis.
Referring to his tenure at the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, he said that he took office on June 27, 2023, fully aware that this is one of the most demanding ministries in the country.
As he specifically stated, “I was not the minister of OPEKEPE, but the minister of Rural Development and Food of all Greece”with responsibility towards the entire agricultural and livestock world of the homeland.
As Lefteris Avgenakis pointed out, OPEKEPE is an important institution within a wider system of policies and mechanisms of the ministry. His goal from the first day was to restore institutionality and transparency, restore correct balances and ensure that the Organization functions as an institutional body of the state and not as a tool of any interest.
As Lefteris Avgenakis said, “I was never afraid of transparency, I imposed it”“I didn’t interfere with the Administration, I fixed it”, “I believe in institutions, not innuendos”.
Pointing out that his term lasted less than a year (until June 14, 2024) “making it the shortest ministerial term in the Ministry of Rural Development and Food under the government of New Democracy” he said that in this short period, he was faced with a ministry that brought decades of structural, administrative and political problems. As he noted, he chose “to act, to organize, to correct and, where necessary, to clash.”
Specifically, he stated that during his tenure, Greece and the agricultural sector faced successive crises of unprecedented intensity, among which:
- “The catastrophic floods in Thessaly (Daniel and Elias), which swept away productive land and livestock, leading to strict sanitary measures, compensation and measures to return to normalcy.
- The fires in Rhodes, Evros and other areas, with incalculable damage to crops, livestock, beekeeping and infrastructure.
- The food crisis in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, with increased costs of animal feed and fertilizers.
- The energy crisis, which skyrocketed production costs and reduced the competitiveness of Greek farmers.
- The mobilizations of farmers throughout Europe, but also in our country.
- The huge labor shortage, which threatened the very harvest of basic products.
- And finally, the extremely important problem of the Greekization of agricultural products”.
As for his actions within this “explosive context” he said they included:
«1. Sweeping controls on the import of milk – fight against Greekisation – mixed levels.
2. Legislative project: L. 5087/2024 (Government Gazette 25/A/16.2.2024) on the subject: “Strengthening standard animal husbandry, regulations for fishing and aquaculture, provisions for phytosanitary, biocidal products and food quality, provisions for stimulating rural development and other urgent provisions”.
3. Preparation of laws:
- Law 5136/2024 (Government Gazette 148/A/19.09.2024) “Control procedures and sanctions for PDO, PGI and EPIP products”.
- Law 5184/2025 (Government Gazette 34/A/06.03.2025) for “Interprofessional Organizations”.
- New ELGA Regulation – Codification of legislation.
4. Agricultural Reserve 2024: tripling of EU support for Greece, following its continuous interventions in the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers — from €15.8m in 2023 to €43.1m in 2024.
5. Changes to the CAP 2023-2027, with proposals accepted for the benefit of producers.
6. Activation of the group of Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries of the 9 countries of the South of the EU (EUMED-9).
7. Co-chairman of the Council of Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries of the European People’s Party.
8. Establishment of the 1st European Reference Center for EU Aquatic Animal Welfare based in Crete, Heraklion.
9. Master Plan for the management of the waters of Thessaly by the Dutch company HVA”.
“The first goal was to restore institutionality”
The former Minister of Rural Development and Food stressed that OPEKEPE’s problems are not recent, but have been highlighted by the European Commission as early as 2016 and even earlierwhile, upon assuming his duties, he found an administratively weak and technologically fragmented Organization.
First goalas he noted, was the restoration of institutionality. All contacts, decisions and instructions were issued within the institutional framework, without political “lines”. The minister sets the policy framework, the administrations decide and execute – a principle that was fully respected.
He prepared a legislative provision for the KYD, with the aim of greater transparency and the creation of safety nets for farmers’ declarations.
Second goal was the activation of actions for the orderly and transparent operation of OPEKEPE.
Lefteris Avgenakis stated that he took corrective measures, strengthened the IT infrastructure, checked reserved VAT numbers, proceeded with payments from earlier years, reorganized supervision departments and strengthened the Organization with new staff and tools.
Third objective it was filling the tools gap. With a provision in Law 5087/2024 (Article 7) a legislative solution was given to the Grazing Management Plans, which provided for:
1. Extension of the deadline for the preparation of Grazing Management Plans until 31/12/2025.
2. Obligation of the Regions, within one month from the signing of the contract with the HYPAAT, to proceed with the posting of the tender for the DSB.
3. For those Regions that did not post on time or did not sign a contract, the responsibility for preparation was assumed by the HYPAAT.
Also, letters were sent to the 13 Regional Governors asking them to declare within 15 days if they intend to undertake the drafting process.
“I did not come to hide the problems of OPEKEPE. I came to solve them. And I touched them all” said Lefteris Avgenakis.
At the same time, he underlined that OPEKEPE did not have integrated information systems nor full interoperability with other agencies.
As he said, according to APE-MPE, for this reason:
- “Technical consultant contracted to transfer ALL data to gov.gr.
- A memorandum of cooperation was signed with the University of Piraeus for an internal control and digital security mechanism.
- Staff reinforcement procedures, which had been stagnant for years, were implemented.
The Action Plan was approved by the EU Directorate General for Agriculturewhich acknowledged that half of European submissions had been satisfied within just one month.”
