ATHENS — Greece risks losing its EU farm subsidies unless it provides an improved action plan by Oct. 2 on how it will stop funds being siphoned off into corruption, as happened in a massive fraud scandal that has convulsed Athens this year.

Brussels is seeking to combat a scam to defraud the EU of hundreds of millions of euros, in which Greeks received agricultural funds for pastureland they did not own or lease, or for agricultural work they did not perform, depriving legitimate farmers of the funds they deserved. POLITICO first reported on the scheme in February.

Several ministers and deputy ministers resigned over their alleged involvement in the scandal, which is under investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO).

After the fraud was exposed, Greece supplied an action plan on how it would address the often eye-popping abuses of payments from the Common Agricultural Policy, which accounts for a third of the EU budget.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture (DG AGRI), in a letter sent to the Greek government last month and now seen by POLITICO, said that proposal had failed to address key deficiencies and did not comply with EU rules.

“After analyzing the action plan and the additional information provided by the Greek authorities in your letter of June 2, 2025, DG AGRI is of the opinion that the plan, as currently proposed, is not sufficient to remedy the deficiencies and therefore does not comply with the provisions,” the letter said.

It added Greece should “amend and strengthen” its action plan.

“It is recalled that if a Member State fails to submit an action plan, the Commission may adopt implementing acts suspending the monthly payments or the interim payments,” it added.

In response to the warning, Greek Agriculture Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras on Thursday reassured farmers that there was no risk of losing European funds, and expressed confidence that Greece’s new plan would allay the EU’s concerns.

He said that the organization in charge of distributing EU farm funds in Greece, OPEKEPE, is now in the final stages of being integrated into Greece’s Independent Authority for Public Revenue, which will allow comprehensive verification of property records and cross-checks before payments.

“The deadline has to do with the submission of a new plan, which will obviously be incorporated into the implementation of the Action Plan,” he said. “There is no risk of losing EU agricultural funds.”

In the meantime, Greece’s parliament convened this week to begin investigating the OPEKEPE scandal. The entire opposition is questioning the ruling center-right New Democracy party’s commitment to a thorough investigation.

On Thursday, the opposition parties accused the government of torpedoing the investigation from the outset as it rejected a list of key witnesses named in a case file sent to the parliament by the EPPO, including political figures.

“The same cover-up tactics we saw in [previous cases] continues, with key witnesses being excluded, whom the EPPO has used but New Democracy is protecting,” Milena Apostolaki, an MP from the center-left PASOK party, said in a statement.