In the Plenary with the statements of the 13 ND MPs, the debate on their waiver of immunity regarding the two documents that have been forwarded to Parliament for their interventions in the grant subsidiesto producers by the OPEKEPE in 2021.
First, the former Minister of Rural Development and Food and MP for Karditsa of the New Democracy Kostas Tsiaras for whom the lifting or not of his immunity is being discussed in order to investigate by the judiciary the commission of the possible offence of incitement against the interests of the EE to the degree of misdemeanour, according to the file of the European Public Prosecutor that has been transmitted to the Parliament and concerns a total of 11 members of the Southwest.
“I request the lifting of my immunity,” Tsiaras said, addressing MPs of all wings. The MP said that “I have served the parliament for 23 years and I never expected to be in this position requesting the lifting of my immunity.”
On the substance of what is attributed to him in the documentation about the conversation his office partner had with the OPEKEPE, he said that “Karditsa in 2020 experienced an unimaginable weather phenomenon called “Janus“, resulting in a total upheaval in the landscape. People were called upon to face problems that they had never seen and dealt with before. In one such case a farmer- farmers in the county approached a partner in my office and asked if all that had happened could cost him his “greening“” noting that “only those who know what greening is and how much special or specialized knowledge is needed to understand the actual facts can also understand the farmer’s particular agony.”
Mr. Tsiaras pointed out that “the dialogue that my partner had with the head of the Regional Office of OPEKEPE in Larissa is a dialogue where one can see that in reality it is actually animated by civility, there is no formality instead there is anxiety about what solution there can be for this issue” and added that the subsidy that the farmer in question was entitled to receive was a total of 2.970 euros and have nothing to do with the 22,200 euros mentioned in the case file, because anyone who knows the process of subsidies and especially the subsidies of “greening” knows that it is an independent subsidy that is not confused with any other.”
Mr. Tsiaras stressed that “all these facts will be proven through the judicial investigation itself.”
Addressing MPs of all wings, Tsiaras, among others, asked what is the role of the MP?Just to observe the facts? To mediate for certain interests? Or to actively work on issues that obviously concern his/her local community and even comparable citizens?” “We cannot,” he said, “have the MP be unresponsive in such circumstances and allow problems to be perpetuated at such a special time.” He declared his confidence in the institution of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, recalling that he as Justice Minister had legislatively established it.
