Sweeping arrests in Greece over EU farm subsidy scandal

ATHENS

Dozens of arrests occurred in Greece on Wednesday in a sweep related to a multi-million EU farm subsidy scandal which the prime minister warned could cost the primary sector gravely.

Greek police said they had arrested 37 people in the greater Athens area, Thessaloniki, the island of Crete and other areas in an ongoing operation.

This followed an Oct. 13 raid by the European Union's anti-fraud agency OLAF on the offices of OPEKEPE, Greece's state agency supervising the payment of EU support funds to farmers.

An EU probe has shown widespread abuse of funds handed out by OPEKEPE, which according to the government disbursed more than 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) annually, mainly in subsidies to 680,000 farmers.

Eye-catching cases under investigation include pastures declared in archaeological sites, olive trees in a military airport and banana plantations on Mount Olympus.

The case has put major pressure on conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis — even more so given his family's decades-long political influence in Crete, where most of the allegedly fraudulent subsidies came from.

He has vowed to imprison the "thieves" responsible and to reclaim the funds.

Mitsotakis warned yesterday there was "great danger" of Greece's EU funds for the primary sector being placed "in doubt" if the case is not resolved.

"It is clear that criminal investigations were involved here, taking advantage of state failings to claim money they were not entitled to," he told Skai radio.