Multiple senior officials from Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ center-right administration resigned on Friday after being named in a European prosecutor's report linking them to a large-scale scheme to defraud the EU’s generous agricultural budget.
Those who resigned were Migration Minister Makis Voridis; Deputy Foreign Minister Tasos Chatzivasileiou; Deputy Minister of Rural Development Dionysis Stamenitis; Deputy Minister of Digital Governance Christos Boukoros; and Secretary General for Rural Development and Food Giorgos Stratakos.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is pursuing dozens of cases in which Greeks received EU agricultural funds for pastureland they did not own or lease, or for agricultural work they did not perform, thereby depriving legitimate farmers of the funds they deserved. This multi-year, multimillion-euro scam was the subject of a POLITICO investigation earlier this year.
Last week, EPPO referred to the Greek parliament information regarding the alleged involvement “in criminal offenses” of two former ministers overseeing the rural development and food portfolio.
The ministers in question are Voridis, agriculture minister from 2021 to 2023, who is now the migration minister, and Lefteris Avgenakis, agriculture minister from 2023 to 2024, who is now a member of parliament.
According to Greek law, only the national parliament has the authority to investigate and prosecute current or former members of the Greek government. This means that, despite its broad mandate to investigate the misuse of EU funds, the EPPO lacks the power to pursue such cases in Greece. The agency has called this a violation of its founding EU regulation.
The EPPO file finally reached parliament this week, and Greek MPs can access it even though it is illegal to make it public. The 3,000-page file describes a “criminal organization” consisting of state officials from OPEKEPE, the organization in charge of EU payments, as well as individuals and MPs who exploited EU funds by illegally receiving agricultural subsidies, according to officials who have viewed it.
The file also describes how the organization operated, mainly in Crete.
Avgenakis and Voridis are accused of misappropriating EU funds. They both reject the claims.
The case file names 15 MPs — 13 from the ruling New Democracy (ND), and one each from the opposition Pasok and Syriza parties — alongside regional officials and former agency executives.
