The Minister of Rural Development and Food, Costas Tsiaras, sent a clear message to clarify the issues related to OPEKEPE in an interview with the “Naftemporiki” channel.

“I want to make it clear in every direction that no one will stay in the restless. Everyone will be explored: the CYD, the certification bodies, the technical advisers – all who have a involvement in the OPECEPE process. They will be investigated in relation to their role, their activity and their impact on all those who are in the real space and in relation to the results of OPECEPE. No one will be left out of control, “the minister said.

Mr Tsiaras announced that a special operational team has already been set up, involving the Financial Police, AADE, Audit mechanisms and officials of the Ministry of Culture, noting that the group had full access to OPECEPE data. “The effort we started is very coordinated and concerns the involvement of many different factors, with a single goal: to get the money back to all those who in an illegal way managed – in the quotes – to fool OPEKEPE,” he underlined.

The minister assured that the delays in payments concern only the cases where the checks are needed. “The fact that for a few days the Financial Police had to draw information from OPEKEPE to complete its own investigation, you realize that it creates a slight delay in paying payment,” he said, adding that the payments scheduled for June 30 is not over.

Concerning the recovery of illegally paid money, Mr Tsiaras said: “We have said that we will be led to the recovery of these money in any legal way by national law. If needed -one gets in the seizures. “

Referring to political responsibility, he pointed out that “we must be honest with each other – it has its root in yesterday, it is a timeless pathogenesis”, adding that “we have no room but to clash with this pathogenicity and to create a completely different treaty.”

Mr Tsiaras recalled that in 2015 it was decided to use virtual pastures and that in 2017, livelihood was disconnected. He also stressed that the order for clearance in OPEKEPE was given by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis personally: “From the first moment the prime minister phoned me to take over the position of the Minister, he stressed that my first priority should be clearance in OPEKEPE.”

As he said, there has been a consolidation plan for a year, with the organization being under surveillance by the ministry, and has recovered the responsibility for special grazing plans by the Regions. At the same time, it is proceeding to hire 100 additional employees to strengthen the audits.

Concluding, Mr Tsiaras sent a clear message of support to the rural world: “OPECEPE will now operate in an era of absolute transparency. Honorable farmers and honest breeders will enjoy the flow of European resources without shadows, without distortions, without injustice. “