Absolutely institutional as Prime Minister’s attitude toward his case OPECEPE The Minister of Rural Development and Food, Costas Tsiarasduring an interview with Action24.
According to Mr. Tsiara, The situation in the body is not the result of a recent error but of a deep, timeless pathogenesis that the political system failed to check:
“Anyone who claims that he did not know what was happening to OPECEPE in recent years, is obviously pretending. We have to be honest with each other. “
Made special reference to the numbers that capture the distortion of the statements system.
“There is no average of milk production by a half -animal animal to be 200 kg and a pure -blooded 350, and in Greece to record average milk production, just over 60 kg. These numbers are relentless. They are over, “he noted.
Referring to the illegal aid, he stressed that a mechanism for recovering the money, which have been paid by illegal supporting documents, would be created, noting that its aim is to operate OPECEPE.
«The period of clearance has begun. OPEKEPE enters another era with absolute transparency, clean procedures and zero tolerance to illegality“, He said.
And reminded that In the past months, 53m euros were recovered from aid that had been paid by the Agency, under the responsibility of previous administrations.
The minister referred in detail to the institutional deficit, which has characterized OPEKEPE for years, with incomplete technical support system, lack of grazing management plans and insufficient maps:
“We didn’t manage to build a functioning model capable of controlling the process. We had no fixed technical advisor. There were no special maps, grazing plans, the necessary checks. These are the ones that allow false animals, land, productions, and ultimately receive subsidies that do not correspond to reality. “
This gap, he said, also led to the well -known administrative fines imposed by the European Commission – but which, as he has made clear, must be separated from the illegal payments and investigation of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office:
“It is another € 415 million administrative fines and another the money some have taken illegally. Obviously they are linked, but the fine is not imposed for it. Administrative fines are offended, and some of them have already fallen, “he said, reiterating that the fine will be appealed.
He also stressed that the Ministry of Rural Development and Food It is already implementing an Action Plan, which has been agreed with the Commission’s Directorate -General for Agriculture:
«The action plan is not a general one. Includes clear interventions, new procedures, scientists’ recruitment, reinforcement of checks. There is already a Government Gazette for 100 extra recruitment. ”
He made it clear that special controls would be proceeded with the biological livestock programs and beekeeping programs, as he said, “they will give us critical data on what was happening in previous years.”