Rural Development and Food Minister Margaritis Schinas outlined the three top priorities he has set since taking office, during a discussion Delphi Economic Forum ΧΙ on Friday.
These priorities are: the effective reorganization of the payments system, the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2028-2034, and the management of animal disease outbreaks in Greece.
Referring to the restructuring of the payments system, he noted that “we must move beyond OPEKEPE and transition to the new payments system through the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE). This is a difficult transition that must take place while in motion,” adding that “we have made a commitment to the European Commission that we will not deviate from the obligations we have undertaken.”
He said it is “a binding commitment of the Greek government to complete this process.” Regarding the new CAP, he stressed that the final framework has not yet been shaped, but the current proposals “are moving in the right direction because they allow us to cover the full range of producers, small, medium and large.”
On the issue of animal disease outbreaks, Schinas underlined that foot-and-mouth disease is “everything that Covid was, times 10,” stressing that “if it is not brought under control, it could destroy the country’s livestock sector.”
He noted that the Greek government does not rule out the vaccination of animals against foot-and-mouth disease, while clarifying that “we are not yet at a stage where, epidemiologically, vaccination would be the solution.”