Some aid for organic agriculture scrapped over fraud

[InTime News]

The Rural Development and Food Ministry announced Wednesday it was canceling each assistance programs for integrated beekeeping and livestock farming, amid a rash of bogus applications by farmers to person EU subsidies.

The announcement by Minister Margaritis Schinas, a erstwhile EU Commission vice president, enactment an extremity to speculation that the assistance could restart aft it was suspended successful October 2025, when audits revealed the grade of the scandal. The program, budgeted astatine €134 million, would allocate €19 cardinal to integrated beekeeping and €115 cardinal to integrated livestock farming.

“We are obliged to cancel the problematic actions,” Schinas said astatine a property conference, adding that “there will beryllium nary aboriginal backing until we found the due (monitoring) framework.”

Schinas added that the funds from the canceled programs “will beryllium redirected to different priorities, which we will denote soon.” He besides noted that “we are successful afloat coordination with Brussels, and they are afloat informed astir the situation.”

MPs and erstwhile ministers person been accused, successful different case, of helping farmers illegally get EU subsidies.