The data for the transition of OPECEP to ADRE, as well as the plan for agricultural payments until the end of 2026, are currently being presented by the Minister of Rural Development and Food, Margaritis Schinas, and the administrator of ADRE, Giorgos Pitsilis.
Watch the full press conference:
Referring to the process of integration of the OPEKEPE into the AADE, Mr. Schinas admitted that this is a difficult and demanding transition, stressing, however, that major challenges require decisive action. At the same time, he sent a message that “the party for the sophisticates is over.”
As he said, “and the necessary audits will be done as they should be and payments will be made on time. We are changing and we are paying, or rather we are changing so that we can pay.”
He added:
“I declare that I personally pledge that I will stand by the AADE as a guarantor and facilitator of this historic effort to ensure that payments are made on time, to the real beneficiaries, transparently, quickly and accurately.”
“We are evolving by paying fairly”
For his part, the governor of the AADE George Pitsilis noted that “we are evolving by paying fairly, having as a vision to create a model Agricultural Payments Agency“.
He then presented the payment figures and the timetable until the end of 2026, noting that since 1 January 258 million euros have already been paid to 166,000 beneficiaries.
Payments of 297 million euros are scheduled for May. €297 million to 161,000 beneficiaries is planned for May,while in June, €509 million is expected to be paid to some 477,000 beneficiaries.
He said that in the second half of 2026 andin particular from July to October, it is estimated that €119 million will be made available. 119 million to 732,000 beneficiaries, while additional payments of €491 million are planned for November and December.
Total for the whole of 2026, €2.231 billion is expected to be paid to some 3.4 million beneficiaries.
Relating to the checks, Mr. Pitsilis explained that “we are implementing ADSE models with cross checks a from e.g. Crete to the Peloponnese and vice versa”.
He cited as an example the checks on animal capital, noting that for 2024 they had been set as target 2.400 controls but eventually 1,170 were carried out, while for this year the target was almost doubled, reaching 5,000 controls, with most of them already completed.
At the same time, he announced that “we are opening the platform of the single application for land support with monitoring (remote sensing) and opening the application Agrisnap for sending new photos.”
As for Pillar II payments, the AADE governor said that in 2025, €1 billion has already been paid, of which €400 million was paid last month. However, 711 envelopes totalling €140 million remain pending, with the aim of completing their payment by the end of July.
For the aid related to fertilisers, he noted that the relevant platform will be opened by the end of May and payments will be made in three instalments.
Finally, Pitsilis said:
“We are working intensively to open the new OSDE aid by mid-June, MIDA is also expected in the first week of June and myDATA2.0 for milk, meat, honey, oil and potato invoices will be done in 2026.”
