Several Greek parliamentarians have given up their immunity as they are being investigated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in relation to misused EU agricultural funds. The corruption scandal has already claimed the position of the Greek agricultural minister, Konstantinos Tsiaras, who was dismissed by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis due to his alleged involvement. The names of two other ministers—the current Civil Protection minister and the former transport minister—also emerged during the EPPO’s investigation. The probe concerns alleged crimes against the financial interests of the EU, in particular agricultural funds that were awarded for pastureland not actually owned or leased by the beneficiaries.
Dissatisfaction with how the investigation has been handled led to a conflict between the right-wing Greek ruling party and EPPO. ‘The approach taken by the EPPO gives me the impression of organized and targeted political interference and raises serious questions in my mind as to whether or not we were right to support this institution,’ Greek Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis wrote. He suggested that Athens has the right to withdraw from the EU institution. As the controversy unfolded, even Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis hinted to the possibility that EPPO had been relaying on ‘selective leaks’ during its work.
The Greek New Democracy is not the first to criticize EPPO’s work on the grounds that politics might influence its probe as well as its results. EPPO took over a Belgian probe into the Pfizergate in 2024, but their investigation has so far yielded no results. While there has not been any news of EPPO’s investigation since April two years ago, the European Court of Justice has already condemned the European Commission (in a lawsuit initiated by The New York Times) for its lack of transparency when handling text correspondence between Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer. At the time of the written exchange, the content of which is subject to much controversy, the European Commission purchased COVID vaccines from Pfizer for 20 billion euros.
‘Hungary is one of three Member States that are not yet part of EPPO’
EPPO was similarly unable to show results after the EP’s infamous Qatargate scandal. EPPO started to look into the involvement of former MEP Eva Kaili in Qatargate in 2022. Allegedly, the parliamentarian accepted cash from countries such as Qatar, but despite EPPO’s investigation, no one has been sentenced so far with relation to the cash-for-influence scandal—not Eva Kaili, nor anyone else. Despite this fiasco, the investigator against Eva Kaili, Andrés Ritter, was confirmed to become the new European chief prosecutor from 1 November 2026. Hungary’s new government signalled its readiness to join EPPO—the step is likely to be concluded once Andrés Ritter has already taken over as leader of the public prosecutor. Hungary is one of three Member States that are not yet part of EPPO.
EPPO’s Background
Established in 2017, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office is tasked with protecting the EU budget, for example by helping uncover fraud, cross-border VAT fraud, misappropriation of EU funds, and other criminal offences that undermine the EU’s financial interests. EPPO can take over cases from national public prosecutors (after which national authorities are no longer entitled to exercise their own competence with regard to the same criminal conduct), conduct investigations, initiate arrests, and even file indictments.
These competences, and especially the power to formally accuse someone, distinguish EPPO from other EU anti-corruption agencies, such as OLAF, which lack these powers. EPPO’s authority to indict serves as the primary flashpoint for its critics. Some argue that such prosecutorial power should remain with national authorities rather than be centralized within a quasi-federal institution.
The EPPO’s creation and powers have been debated since its inception. Under the so-called ‘subsidiarity control mechanism’, national parliaments have the right to object to EU legal initiatives. If national parliaments believe that a proposed EU law does not comply with the principle of subsidiarity, they can vote against it. If enough votes are collected, the EU is obliged to review the proposal.
As the threshold for raising such objections is very high, only three legal proposals have ever been challenged in this way. One of these was the proposal to create the EPPO. In total, 14 national parliaments opposed its creation in 2013. As a result, the Commission had to review the initiative, but it maintained that the objections were not justified and proceeded with establishing the Office.
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