Bio farming subsidies are canceled

A rash of bogus applications by farmers to person EU subsidies for biologic farming has led the Ministry of Agricultural Development to cancel subsidies for 2024.

Minister Kostas Tsiaras said helium had to take the determination due to the fact that “an overwhelming percent of applicants who were accepted to the [biological farming program] indispensable beryllium stricken off.”

In canceling the program, Tsiaras admitted that authorities are unable to efficiently show those who supply bogus certificates astir farming bio crops.

“If we don’t bash this monitoring, we hazard European resources being chopped off,” helium said.

Talking astir farming subsidies successful general, Tsiaras said that “our effort is to marque payments arsenic accelerated arsenic imaginable and to support Greek farmers,” adding that helium meant the honorable ones.

The cancellation of the subsidies will besides impact those honorable farmers Tsiaras was referring to and who had already invested successful bio crops and sustainable feeding of livestock.

The Biological Farming and Animal Husbandry Program was acceptable to tally from June 2024 to June 2027 and had a fund of €287.5 million. More than 60,000 farmers had applied for subsidies under the program.

Officials astatine the Agricultural Development Ministry said that the subsidies acceptable speech for 2025 are being reconsidered.

Officials who cognize astir communications betwixt the Greek authorities and the European Commission person told Kathimerini that the biologic farming programme could extremity up arsenic a ungraded that could eclipse the mysteriously expanding flocks and grazing onshore that received subsidies done Greece’s subsidy disbursement bureau OPEKEPE, whose functions are acceptable beryllium transferred to autarkic tax authorization AADE.

The officials constituent to the National Certification Council and the Dimitra Hellenic Agricultural Organization for failing to observe the bogus applications and supporting documents. Such nonaccomplishment raises suspicions of corruption and has undermined, successful the eyes of the EU, the Greek state’s estimation and its capableness to betterment itself, arsenic authorities person promised.