‘I am appearing as a witness. The material that has been transmitted to Parliament does not constitute an indictment against me,’ Avgenakis said at the outset. He added that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office had informed Parliament rather than accusing him, and that he appeared ‘with a clear conscience’.
There was a repeated theme in his testimony: an insistence that he had acted to restore institutional rules and openness at the ministry, and that he had sought to correct administrative failings rather than to subvert them.
‘There are no scandals when there are documents and evidence. Everything is in the light,’ he said. ‘I was never afraid of transparency — I imposed it. I did not interfere with the administration; I corrected it. I did not promise, but I acted.’
Avgenakis described his brief tenure at the Ministry of Rural Development and Food — from 27 June 2023 to 14 June 2024 — as one spent confronting long-standing structural, administrative and technical problems. He said the ministry and the agricultural sector were simultaneously dealing with floods, wildfires, supply and energy shocks linked to the war in Ukraine, labour shortages and other crises.
He argued that OPEKEPE’s problems pre-dated his term, saying they had been identified as early as 2016 and that the agency was ‘administratively weak and technologically fragmented’ when he took office. He denied any personal involvement in illegal acts, saying there was no document, decision or signature linking him to unlawful conduct and dismissing allegations as ‘speculation and political impressions’.
Blaming the former president
Avgenakis placed the onus for the agency’s failures on the former OPEKEPE president, Vangelis Simandrakos. He told MPs he had requested Simandrakos’s resignation for nine reasons, which he presented to the committee as concerns that impeded the agency’s lawful operation:
• problematic payments in June and October 2023, including extra-systemic actions;
• fines totalling €170 million for the 2023–24 period;
• an order to pay €31 million in 2022 despite prior official warnings;
• contracts with technical consultants that lacked clear deliverables;
• delays in checking thousands of blocked VAT numbers;
• failure to provide necessary information to the certification authority;
• problematic cooperation with certain officials;
• the absence of a restructuring plan for the organisation;
• a €63 million error in the 2022 clearance, according to a European audit.
He told the committee that on 2 March 2024 he had been informed of 16,500 blocked tax numbers; by 21 May, 7,545 had been checked and 730 showed irregularities.
Defending Cretan producers
Avgenakis also rejected what he described as collective stigmatisation of Cretan farmers. He insisted that the vast majority of producers on the island were law-abiding and hardworking, and warned against equating entire communities with the actions of a few.
‘The farmer is not a suspect, he is a citizen,’ he said. ‘Any attempt to identify the whole with a few criminal cases constitutes an insult and a discrediting.’
In closing, Avgenakis reiterated his confidence in the facts and in democratic procedures: ‘When the light shines everywhere, the truth needs no defenders, only people who dare to speak it.’
Minister Costas Tsiaras is expected to testify to the committee, while Makis Voridis is due to appear on Friday.
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