Tsiaras claimed that the investigation had exposed ‘structural weaknesses’ in the agricultural aid management system and argued that what was now needed were institutional reforms to guarantee the reliability of agricultural payments and protect genuine producers. ‘This trust is the most important asset that we must protect,’ he said.
Defending the conduct of the committee itself against sustained opposition criticism, the minister insisted that the inquiry had been thorough and comprehensive. ‘The Investigative Committee operated for five months. Dozens of meetings were held. More than 350 hours of work were recorded. 76 witnesses were examined. Thousands of pages of documents were submitted,’ he said. He flatly rejected accusations of a cover-up: ‘When I hear the word “cover-up” repeated, I have to say that it does not correspond to the real facts. A cover-up has specific characteristics: limiting the investigation, limiting the witnesses, limiting the evidence. In the case of the Investigative Committee, exactly the opposite happened.’
Tsiaras repeatedly emphasised the long-term nature of the problems at OPEKEPE, arguing that they were ‘pathologies that have developed over time’ rather than the product of the current government’s conduct. Attacking the opposition, he accused other parties of attempting to reduce a complex institutional problem to a question of individual criminal liability. ‘Mr Androulakis tried to present the issue as a case limited to specific political figures. But the reality is much more complex,’ he said.
Notably, the minister made no reference in his speech to the fact that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office had forwarded to parliament a case file naming two former ministers of rural development, Makis Voridis and Lefteris Avgenakis, in connection with the scandal. He stated instead that the committee, which was controlled by the government majority, had found no evidence substantiating ministerial criminal liability.
On the question of reform, Tsiaras presented the government’s decision to abolish OPEKEPE and transfer its responsibilities to AADE, the Independent Authority for Public Revenue, as the centrepiece of its response to the scandal. He stated that he had received a direct mandate from Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis ‘to examine in depth the operation of the organisation and to proceed with the necessary corrective interventions’, and described the government as having chosen ‘the difficult path of reform’. A ‘comprehensive action plan’ was under way, he said, including strengthened controls, improved payment processes and upgraded information systems.
The transfer of OPEKEPE’s responsibilities to AADE has been sharply criticised by the opposition. SYRIZA described it as ‘a hasty and unsubstantiated choice’, arguing that transferring a specialised EU funds management body to a tax authority without adequate institutional or technical preparation had resulted in delayed payments to farmers, blocked audits and increasingly complicated procedures.
Tsiaras closed by raising the broader question of constitutional reform on ministerial accountability, noting that Prime Minister Mitsotakis had proposed, in the context of the next constitutional review, an amendment to Article 86 to give the judiciary a stronger role in pursuing such cases.
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