The immediate priorities of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food in the primary sector were presented by Lefteris Avgenakis in the context of the Economic Forum of the Economic Post on the topic “Greek Entrepreneurship 2.0+”.

He first spoke about water with the Minister of Rural Development and Food stressing that its management is high on the agenda, as without water there is no production.

For ELGA, Mr. Avgenakis underlined that the new regulation will be voted on in the Parliament at the beginning of 2024. It will include, among other things, new insurance branches and will cover additional risks, while insurance coverage will move into three levels, with the first being mandatory and the other two optional.

“We are waiting for the extremely unacceptable president of the Organization to resign,” said the minister speaking of OPEKEPE, adding that “in matters of order, transparency, legitimacy, we do not compromise.”

He attributed to the president of OPEKEPE the responsibilities for the bad payments made in October, when the advance payment of the basic aid was made, while he called him responsible for the inability to absorb 88 million euros that should have been distributed to the farmers.

In fact, as Mr. Avgenakis revealed in the previous days, EU auditors came to Athens and inspected the Organization and did not get the best picture.

Regarding Thessaly, he said “the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the government are giving a lot of weight to dealing with the problems caused by the floods, pointing out, however, that “the Thessaly project does not end in one semester. It will take two to three years.”

In addition, Mr. Avgenakis stated that next Friday, December 22, an additional 26 million euros will be paid to the producers who did not receive an advance payment until now for the damage to their crops.

At the beginning of the year, he announced a new separate program to cover lost income in flooded areas (a total of 180,000 acres are covered in water) and for those who are generally unable to cultivate their land due to the disaster.

Finally, the responsible minister noted that by January 10 at the latest, the platform for receiving applications for joining Measure 5.2 will be open, which enables those who join to replenish their livestock and rebuild modern stables, completely free of charge.