Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, addressed the plenary session of the Parliament, οn Tuesday, July 29, where discussions are underway regarding the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry committee into the farming scandal of Greece’s agricultural payments agency, OPEKEPE, and the misappropriation of EU funds. Mitsotakis described the formation of this committee as an unavoidable necessity.
The prime minister called for institutional sobriety and parliamentary responsibility, backing New Democracy’s proposal to investigate OPEKEPE from its inception. The inquiry aims to expose systemic issues, assign responsibility, and deliver long-overdue reforms to benefit farmers, livestock breeders, and the country, Mitsotakis stressed.
He drew a clear distinction between the pursuit of accountability and the practice of witch hunts, stressing that the inquiry committee represents the appropriate course of action in the current political climate. He acknowledged past attempts at investigation had failed, especially when exploited as tools for partisan retaliation.
In 2025, the prime minister stressed that Greece no longer needs scandals but demands truth, even if it exposes ongoing dysfunctions. He called OPEKEPE a “longstanding open wound,” originally meant to support agriculture but now plagued by intermediaries, political patronage, and opaque networks of advisors and vested interests.
The consequences, Mitsotakis pointed out, are well known: a portion of European agricultural funds failed to reach their intended recipients. Both local and, to some extent, European inertia allowed parasitic practices to flourish. Mismanagement of the public sector was, to a degree, tolerated even by some farmers who resigned themselves to this reality.
Taking responsibility beyond the current government’s actions, the prime minister recalled that multiple OPEKEPE-related cases were already before the judiciary well before the involvement of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
When progress stalled, he opted for a more decisive measure, initiating the integration of OPEKEPE into the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) to eliminate unnecessary human intermediaries in subsidy determinations. Mitsotakis invited opposition parties to express their views on whether this was the best solution to the structural problems.
He assured that Greece will soon have a full overview of all intermediaries to identify the most opaque transactions and recoverable amounts, focusing on the most serious cases. He emphasized that the inquiry committee is crucial not only to identify those involved but also to provide a final resolution, which only a parliamentary body can achieve.
