Ministers resign in Greece as EU funds investigation widens

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has carried out a cabinet reshuffle following the resignations of ministers linked to an investigation into possible abuses of agricultural subsidies, Pavlos Marinakis, government spokesperson, announced.

Under the new appointments, Evangelos Tournas has taken over as Minister of Civil Protection, replacing Ioannis Kefalogiannis, while Margaritis Schinas becomes Minister of Rural Development in place of Kostas Tsiaras, Caliber.Az reports, citing Greek media.

Makarios Lazaridis was also appointed Deputy Minister of the Agriculture Ministry.

Kefalogiannis and Tsiaras resigned earlier in the day after their names surfaced in a European Public Prosecutor’s investigation.

Deputy Health Minister Dimitris Vartzopoulos, also implicated in the case, stepped down as well.

The probe concerns potential fraud in payments made through the now-defunct OPEKEPE agency, which distributed European Union subsidies.

Investigators allege that some farmers, with the assistance of officials, may have illegally appropriated EU funds.

Greek authorities have expressed their readiness to cooperate with the investigation and emphasised the need to restore transparency in the subsidy distribution system.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov