GREECE Trends and Developments Contributed by: Ilias Anagnostopoulos and Constantina Akrida, Anagnostopoulos
bers (composed of the European Chief Prosecutor and two European Prosecutors as permanent mem - bers), and the Director General. The EPPO’s central office is located in Luxembourg. At the national level, it consists of European Delegated Prosecutors, who are based in the member states and are part of their respective national legal systems. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office is an inde - pendent authority. Its independence, which is a funda - mental element of its effectiveness, can be identified in two directions. • Members of the EPPO are required to act indepen - dently and not to seek or take instructions from any other Union institution or body of the Union. • Members of the EPPO are required to act indepen - dently and must neither seek nor take instructions from the member states of the EU from which they originate. The EPPO is granted jurisdiction over any criminal offence affecting the financial interests of the Union. Directive 2017/1371 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which is closely linked to Regulation 2017/1939, defines “the financial interests of the Union” as all revenues, expenditures, and assets cov - ered by, derived from, or due to: • the Union budget; and • the budgets of the Union institutions, bodies, offic - es, and agencies established under the Treaties, or those budgets which are directly or indirectly man - aged or supervised by them. Under Directive 2017/1371, the EPPO is responsible for investigating offences of fraud against the interests of the Union, bribery and corruption of officials, where the official’s conduct is such as to harm or be likely to harm the financial interests of the Union, money laundering, etc. Under Regulation 2017/1939, the EPPO’s jurisdiction also extends, under certain conditions, to acts inextri - cably linked to the aforementioned criminal conduct.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office is responsi - ble for investigating, prosecuting, and bringing to jus - tice the perpetrators of criminal offences affecting the financial interests of the EU, as well as their accom - plices. The EPPO exercises prosecutorial functions before the competent courts of the member states until the final conclusion of the case. Regulation 2017/1939 grants the European Delegated Prosecutor a range of procedural powers, such as conducting searches in any premises and taking pre - cautionary measures necessary to preserve evidence, freezing instruments or proceeds of crime, including assets, and monitoring electronic communications. Directive 2017/1371 was transposed into Greek law by Law 4689/2020. From the explanatory report of the implementing law, it emerges that the legal interest protected by these provisions is broader than that of property and ownership as protected under the Greek Criminal Code. The concept of “financial interests” also includes fines imposed by the Commission in the context of the application of competition law, or con - tributions owed by third countries in the framework of implementing joint programmes with the EU, ie resources which, due to their specific characteristics, may not fall within the notion of “property” under the Greek Criminal Code. The provisions of Regulation 2017/1939 were trans - posed into Greek law by Law 4786/2021. Subsequent - ly, significant amendments were introduced by Law 5026/2023 and minor changes by Law 5108/2024. The alleged fraud scheme In May 2025, European Delegated Prosecutors in Greece carried out a surprise raid on the offices of the Organization for the Payment and Control of Com - munity Aid for Guidance and Guarantees (OPEKEPE) as part of an ongoing investigation into an alleged organized fraud scheme in the agricultural sector. This followed internal audits and reports from Euro - pean bodies, such as the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), regarding potential irregularities. The “close relationship” between the EPPO and OLAF is governed by Article 100 of Regulation 2017/1939, which mandates OLAF to “provide information, analy -
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