Advance Payment (70%) of Basic Assistance for 2018 by OPEKEPE

ANNOUNCEMENT OF PAYMENT OF THE DEPOSIT (70%) OF THE BASIC AID FOR THE YEAR 2018

26/10/2018

On the basis of the new Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union applicable for the period 2015-2020, as indicated in the national legislation, the total of direct payments to be paid to Greek farmers for 2018 amounts to 1 855,473,000 euros. Of this amount, EUR 1 093 650 000 is for basic support, EUR 556 642 000 for greening, EUR 37 109 000 for young farmers (under 40) and EUR 184 049 000 for related aid.

Today, OPEKEPE has finalized the payment of 70% of the 2018 base loan, for an amount of EUR 682,648,311.48, to 536,247 beneficiaries. The process of crediting bank accounts will begin.

It should be noted that the 2018 single aid application presented 648 166 producers, of which the basic aid is 596 180, while the amount paid above corresponds to 98.4% of the total eligible rights on the basis of applications.

During the cross-checking audit carried out for the advance payment of the basic aid for 2018, it was found that beneficiary payments were partially or totally affected. These specific findings mainly concern:

1. Farmers (52 737) whose eligible basic payment amount is less than 250 EUR. If, after calculating the subsequent payments, their total amount is more than EUR 250, they will be paid into the rules.

2. Farmers (73) who do not meet the criteria of an active farmer within the meaning of Article 9 of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013. The producer criterion is controlled by both the direct aid entitlements for the 2017 year of application and their financial data for the 2017 taxation year. This audit is carried out by the Independent Revenue Authority (AAD) of the Ministry of Finance.

3. Farmers (1,787) for whom the result of the active farmer's control is pending because the Ministry of Finance has not completed the work of tax clearance.

4. Farmers (213) whose personal data, as reported in the unified aid application of 2018, were not identified with data from the Treasury Department of the Ministry of Finance.

5. Farmers (2,206) for whom administrative checks on rights transfer applications (additional supporting documents, complex inheritance cases, etc.) are in progress. The total number of rights transfer applications is 42,155.

6. Farmers (574) who did not indicate the details of the bank account they indicated in the single application form with the bank.

7. Farmers (3,000) were declared non-beneficiaries as a result of audits conducted by OPEKEPE due to a large discrepancy between the reported data and the identified data.

8. Farmers (5,628) who do not have documentation on the ownership of all or part of the parcels declared in the 2018 Single Aid Application with respect to the data held in the DAA. These parcels were excluded from the calculation of the eligible rights until their identification.

OPEKEPE, in cooperation with AADE, immediately initiated the resolution of outstanding issues for category 2 and 3 beneficiaries above and a file containing a new processing by the Ministry of Finance will be sent to badign the right to next payment. For the other categories, it should be noted that the administrative document submission system for the 2018 Single Help Request will be opened to the regional services of the OPEKEPE in the near future.

The individualized cases of producers presenting findings during the cross-checking audit affecting the eligible amount of the basic aid will also be examined by the regional services of the OPEKEPE, after the 39, adoption of relevant directives, as appropriate.

In addition, payment of the balance of basic aid and greening is expected by the end of December 2018.

It is recalled that, to inform payments, interested parties may contact the operators of the aid applications, the OPEKEPE automated telephone service center (2108802000) and the HCDCP telephone support center (1540), which operates on working days. 09:00 to 17:00 Finally, it is possible to inform the beneficiaries personally via the link https://iris.gov.gr/ (direct access or via the OPEKEPE website www.opekepe.gr) using access codes. of the Taxisnet information system,.