ATHENS (Reuters) -Greek migration minister Makis Voridis resigned on Friday after being implicated in a European Union investigation into the misuse of subsidies to Greek farmers but he denied any wrongdoing.
The EU earlier this month imposed a 392.2 million-euro ($460.3 million) fine on Greece over a major scandal involving the mismanagement of agricultural subsidies by a government agency between 2016 and 2022.
“Because my status as a suspect of committing criminal acts is not consistent with my status as a member of the government and in order not to hinder the government’s work, I submit to you my resignation,” Voridis said in a letter to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Mitsotakis accepted Voridis’ resignation and a government spokesman said a replacement would be announced in the coming days. Another four government officials have also resigned, the spokesman said, without giving a reason for their decision.
Greece’s opposition Socialists said they would request the launch of a parliamentary investigation into Voridis’ possible involvement in the subsidies scandal.
Voridis served as agriculture minister from 2019 to 2021.
European prosecutors recently charged dozens of Greek livestock farmers who received EU financial aid via the Greek government’s payments agency OPEKEPE with making false declarations of ownership or leasing of pastureland.
Last month Athens promised to overhaul OPEKEPE, which is in charge of paying out annual subsidies to farmers worth about 2.4 billion euros, by merging it with Greece’s tax authorities, with international consultants assisting in the transition.
The European Commission decided to reduce the farm subsidies Greece will receive in the coming years by 5%, reflecting its view that there has long been no proper supervision and operation of the subsidy management model.
Greece had expected to receive about 1.9 billion euros in direct EU subsidies next year.
($1 = 0.8522 euros)
(Reporting by Elefterios Papadimas in Athens and Ivana Sekularac in BelgradeEditing by Gareth Jones)
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