At a time when everyone is awaiting the second major case file from the European Public Prosecutor's Office concerning the corrupt OPECEPE, which also includes the «irregularities» of politicians under investigation, yet another example of scandalous management of European subsidies has managed to cause serious financial damage to the Olive Oil Producers' Groups (OEF).
The way in which the Ministry of Rural Development administratively «managed» an «institutional» program to support Greek olive oil production, whose funding did not stop even with capital controls, raises questions about how far the chaos in the ministry's leadership can go. Kyriakou Mitsotakis.
«Because the whole system has been so corrupt all these years and has become what it has become, now we will pay the price.» tells Documento Christos Winter, president of the Aitolia Olives Agricultural Cooperative, commenting on how the OPEC scandal has disrupted the smooth business operations of cooperatives.
«We paid advances for our work.»
Due to the unjustified delay caused by the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, the first installment (€10.6 million) of the total €40 million in EU funding was lost, and the best-case scenario now is that Greek taxpayers will have to pay for it. For this reason, 15 OEFs are appealing to the Council of State to seek justice.
«We did everything by the book, as the ministry had told us, even though they asked us to implement it within 20 days. We didn't sleep for nights on end and we got it done as far as we could. They approved us and we had the highest score of all.» reports George Christakis, president of the Agricultural Cooperative of Gerakio, Laconia. However, he is still wondering when he will receive this money.
«After we got approval and started implementing the business plan we had submitted, we made advance payments to move our work forward.» says G. Christakis, but today it seems that the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, with a single move, has thrown the program off a cliff: «They came and amended the first ministerial decision (July 15, 2024), which was published on August 20, 2025, rejecting what we had submitted for 2023-2024 because it did not meet the initial eligibility criteria... We had entered the program with whatever the ministry had set as our goal, and they told us that we did not meet the standards.» says G. Christakis.
The «game» was decided in the committees
Sources with excellent knowledge of the proceedings told Documento that the «game» was decided in the committees reviewing the files submitted by the OEFs. Ministry officials may have decided that they could not financially cover all the applicants« requirements and so took the liberty of intervening in the files that had been submitted, unilaterally »cutting« funding for some of the subprograms that the ministry itself had set as standard »eligibility requirements.".
Specifically, an agricultural cooperative had budgeted €70,000 from the €725,190 subsidy it had applied for to go towards «Training, including guidance and exchange of best practices in OEF operational programs,» a percentage of 9.65% with a minimum of 5% based on the ministerial decision.
The audit committee officials reduced this amount to zero in order to reduce the total subsidy, and although this was contrary to the conditions, the ministry ultimately approved the file. At this point, all of the OEFs have been approved, but no one has received any money, and in addition, the European funding has been lost.
In four cases of agricultural cooperative files available to Documento, it is clear that the program's resource allocation rates fully comply with the standards at the time of submission. During the evaluation phase, the files underwent significant changes and were ultimately approved despite their variations.
Questions about employee relocation
According to cross-checked information from Documento, an employee of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food allegedly resisted the «falsification» of the files, which did not work out well for her. Specifically, on October 4, 2024, the decision was issued with the «ranking of applicants for the implementation of intervention P2-47.2 “Operational Work Programs of Olive Oil Organizations (OEOs)”». Four days later, the decision on the «determination of the total amount of the subsidy» was published, showing who was approved and how much they would receive.
According to a statement to the minister Konstantinos Tsiaras of the Panhellenic Union of Agriculturalists in Public Service, on the same day, the «decision of the Human Resources Management Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Food was taken, whereby a colleague, P.E. In their report, the agronomists questioned whether »this transfer was not so «innocent“, but rather a political choice because their colleague did not carry out verbal orders from ”above“?” The outcome is the subject of much debate.
