Author: Chiara Milano
Committee: Date: 31/03/2025
The EU’s management of agricultural funds is a crucial pillar in supporting the agricultural sector and fostering rural development. However, in recent years, the distributing system of these funds has been severely tested by instances of fraud that have significantly damaged the financial interests of the Union.
Recent investigations conducted by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) have uncovered fraudulent schemes through which some Greek citizens, mostly from Crete, allegedly obtained EU agricultural funds for pasture land they did not own or lease, or for agricultural activities that were never carried out, thus appropriating sums intended for legitimate farmers.
This is one of the largest agricultural frauds in recent years: it is estimated that the defrauded amount is 45 million for year.
Fraudulent applicants claimed to own land for which they didn’t have legal ownership, often in areas far from their place of residence, and the checks on the documents were either insufficient or completely absent, thus allowing the illegal appropriation of funds.
The case indicts the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), because CAP funds were allocated through a mechanism prone to abuse, namely based on land area.
It is presumed that, in defrauding these sums between 2017 and 2020, state authorities played an important role in the system, particularly employees of OPEKEPE, the Payment and Control Organization for Community Support Funds in Greece, responsible for the correct distribution and oversight of EU agricultural funds, particularly within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Current and former officials have described a three-tier fraudulent scheme:
1. Access to internal information: OPEKEPE technicians provided access to information on available pastures for PAC fund applications. This information allowed the fraudsters to identify properties on which they could submit subsidy requests without the risk of overlapping with other beneficiaries.
2. Complicity in control bodies: officials involved in the fraud ensured that suspicions of fraud were not investigated. In fact, fund applications were often accepted even without the submission of the required property documents.
3. Obstruction and removal of opponents: agency leaders who attempted to counter the scheme were removed from their positions or pressured to resign.
This irregularity in the EU funds management was first noticed by Paraskevi Tycheropoulou, head of the Internal Audit Department of OPEKEPE, whose work was, in fact, obstructed by her superiors. Tycheropoulou uncovered a well-organized network for siphoning off reserved EU funds through false declarations.
Thanks to the contribution of Tycheropoulou to EPPO, since 2021, European prosecutors have been investigating the Greek pasture scheme, and to date, about seventy cases have been examined, some of which are still ongoing, while others have already seen the fraudsters sentenced to prison terms.
This case represents further proof of the importance of the work carried out by EPPO, which is expected to grow in the coming years. As highlighted in the latest annual report from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, agricultural fraud linked to CAP funds represents one of the most complex challenges for the European Prosecutor’s Office.
Specifically, in Greece, 25 investigations were opened in the agricultural sector in 2024, with an estimated damage of 489 million euros to the EU coffers. However, despite the discovery of significant fraudulent schemes, such as the one related to non-existent pastures, the effectiveness of investigations and legal actions in Greece has been very limited, as evidenced by the lack of convictions, indicating a judicial system that is not very incisive and faces political and administrative obstacles.
The data reported for Italy, on the other hand, show a volume of these frauds nearly ten times greater than that of Greece: in 2024, there were 117 CAP investigations, with an estimated damage of 4.65 billion euros. Furthermore, unlike Greece, Italy estimates 22 convictions, for a total of 38 people convicted, demonstrating more effective judicial action. In fact, Italy remains one of the most active countries in the fight against agricultural fund fraud, with effective investigations and a judicial system that succeeds in obtaining significant convictions and asset seizures. In contrast, Greece still seems to be lagging behind, both in terms of the number of investigations and concrete results.
However, the beginning of 2025 marked an important evolution in the Greek judicial response: – On February 18, 2025, 64 individuals (56 suspects and 8 accomplices) were formally indicted; the trial will begin on May 16, 2025.
– In January 2025, another 22 individuals (16 suspects and 6 accomplices) were indicted; the hearing is scheduled for March 24, 2025.
– Finally, 14 suspects (8 perpetrators and 6 accomplices), already indicted in 2024, will go to trial on May 30, 2025.
If convicted, the responsible individuals face up to 5 years in prison and financial penalties.
However, in the face of Greece’s general inability to combat fraud, the EU will have to decide how to intervene to ensure that CAP funds are used correctly, in order to prevent the trust in the European agricultural funding system from being progressively undermined.
In this context, two parliamentary questions have already been submitted addressing these issues, aiming to explore how European Institutions can tackle a system of irregularities and corruption that is widespread within the Greek national institutions.
The European Parliament has taken action by submitting written question E-000865/2025 to the Commission, which focuses on the urgent need to strengthen transparency, prevent fraud, and rebuild trust in the management of agricultural funds. Specifically, Parliament has asked the Commission what concrete measures it is taking to assist the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in detecting the illicit use of EU agricultural funds and how it plans to enhance fraud prevention and reduce associated risks. Most importantly, Parliament is seeking clarity from the Commission on how it intends to restore public and stakeholder confidence in the financial auditing and control system.
In addiction, in March 2025, Giuseppe Antoci, a Member of the European Parliament from The Left group, submitted another question (E-000987/2025) to the European Commission regarding CAP fraud, with a specific focus on the OPEKEPE case in Greece. Antoci raised concerns about the effectiveness of the control and prevention measures implemented by the Member States, highlighting the need for a more coordinated approach in the fight against fraud that undermines the financial interests of the EU. In this question, Antoci posed three main inquiries to the Commission:
1. He asked for an assessment of the feasibility of granting OLAF, EPPO, and ECA direct access to IT tools to improve the effectiveness of anti-fraud investigations;
2. He requested an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Antoci Protocol as a preventive anti-fraud tool at the European level, emphasizing its importance in the management of CAP funds;
3. He sought information on the actions planned to strengthen the use of new technologies and improve coordination between OLAF, EPPO, and national authorities in the prevention and recovery of defrauded resources.
These questions reflect Antoci’s commitment, and the EU in general, to promoting more effective and coordinated measures to combat fraud in the agricultural sector, ensuring a more transparent and secure management of public funds allocated to agriculture.