Greece must return €425 million in farm subsidies

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Greece must return €425 million in farm subsidies

January 7th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Euractiv.com
06 January 2012

Some €425 million in Greek government subsidies to farmers were incompatible with EU law and will have to be returned, a European Commission spokesman said yesterday (5 January).

Details of precisely when the farmers must return the money will be decided after the Commission formally adopts a decision and publishes this in the EU’s Official Journal, the spokesman said. He said it was not yet clear when this would be.

“It’s up to Greece to decide how they will return it,” he said, when asked if the nation would have to get the money back from its farmers.

Farmers obtained the aid after blocking highways for weeks at the beginning of 2009, shutting border crossings with Bulgaria and cutting the main roads from Athens to other cities. They were demanding tax rebates and subsidies to cope with the global economic downturn.

At the time the aid package was agreed, Greek news media questioned whether it would violate EU rules on state assistance and ridiculed the government’s failure to get authorisation from Brussels.

“There’s no problem with the European Union,” then-Agriculture Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis said. “I’ve tried to reach the Commissioner. I couldn’t get her on the phone.”