Solution to another “tale of daily madness” for thousands of real producers is given by the government as it secures payment of aid to farmers in Thessaly and Macedonia.
It was tabled in Parliament yesterday, on the initiative of the Deputy Prime Minister, Kostis Hatzidakis, in collaboration with Minister of Rural Development and Food, Margaritis Schinas, an amendment ensuring the payment of aid to farmers who cultivate land for which the State appears in the Land Registry as the original owner.
The amendment introduces specific, objective application criteria, as it provides that subsidies will be granted to land that has been included in the Integrated Management and Control System (IMS) for at least the last three years, is declared in the Single Application for Aid and is cultivated by active and genuine farmers. Retroactive application is also foreseen for payment applications submitted in 2025.
Deputy Prime Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said: “The provision submitted to the Parliament regulates in a fair way a chronic problem faced by thousands of farmers, especially in Thessaly, Macedonia and other regions of the country. Farmers cultivating land, which had been granted to them under temporary concessions, were excluded from agricultural subsidies because the State appears in the Land Registry as the initial beneficiary! This is another “story of everyday madness”, treated in the same spirit as Law 5293/2026 (“Interventions for a more citizen-friendly state”), which was recently adopted. We will continue in the logic of supporting real producers, safeguarding the public interest, but also tackling bureaucracy with concrete, practical solutions.”
The regulation concerns parcels of land for which the State appears as the initial beneficiary in the first entries of the Land Registry, such as, indicatively, land under the agricultural legislation of Law no. 4061/2012, managed by the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, as well as settled areas that have been granted with a temporary concession or in the context of procedures of rural distributions, reforestation and population rehabilitation, such as refugee rehabilitation.
It is noted that the amendment does not affect the rights in rem of the State or any third party rights and does not recognize rights in rem to farmers but applies exclusively to the needs of the Common Agricultural Policy payments. It also has a strict time horizon of validity, until the first entries in the National Land Registry are finalized, when the image of the rights in rem will be irrevocably recorded.
It is recalled that a similar regulation was adopted in 2023, with a legislative initiative of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, (Article 216 of Law no. This regulation addressed the corresponding problem of areas that appeared in the forest maps as cleared forest while in reality they have been cultivated for many years and are included in the O.S.D.E.
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