In particular, Laura Kövesi, who has headed the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) since its creation, urged the Greek authorities to amend Article 86 of the country’s Constitution, which stipulates that only Parliament has the authority to prosecute current and former ministers for alleged criminal offenses committed in the course of their duties.
According to Kövesi, this provision contradicts European law and obstructs the EU’s investigation into the 2023 railway disaster that claimed the lives of 57 people, mostly students. That year, a southbound passenger train and a northbound freight train collided near the Tempi Valley. The authorities stated that the cause of the accident was a stationmaster’s error, who manually directed the passenger train onto the same track as the oncoming freight train. However, subsequent investigations revealed that this mistake was only possible due to numerous systemic issues. Analysts believe that the tragedy could have been avoided if the EU-funded 2014 contract for the reconstruction and modernization of Greece’s railway signaling and remote-control systems had been properly implemented and the corresponding systems had been put into operation.
The EPPO investigation into Greek officials responsible for overseeing the contract identified 23 suspects who may have been involved in the misuse of EU funds. However, prosecutors were unable to proceed further because the country’s Constitution effectively granted ministers immunity from external investigations.
European prosecutors may face similar challenges in another case involving fraud in the use of EU subsidies. In 2025, the EPPO uncovered a large-scale corruption scheme involving agricultural funds and employees of Greece’s Payment and Control Agency for Guidance and Guarantee Community Aid (OPEKEPE). According to case materials, between 2019 and 2022, numerous front persons falsely claimed to be young or beginner farmers and illegally received payments from the national reserve financed under the Common Agricultural Policy. In reality, these individuals had neither pastures or livestock nor any experience in agriculture. In the following years, up to 2024, the same individuals continued to submit false livestock declarations, allowing them to obtain state-owned grazing land, which was then used to receive and maintain eligibility for payments.
According to the EPPO, such fraudulent practices could have been organized with the knowledge and direct involvement of members of the OPEKEPE Board of Directors and senior officials – in particular, high-ranking members of the New Democracy party, including former ministers of agriculture Makis Voridis and Lefteris Avgenakis, were implicated in the scandal. The investigation led to police raids on OPEKEPE offices in Athens and Crete, followed by the dissolution of the Agency and the transfer of its functions to the tax authority. However, at this stage, all alleged perpetrators, including the former ministers, are presumed innocent until proven guilty by competent Greek courts.
In this context, Kövesi reiterated her earlier position, alredy voiced last year, on the need to amend the country’s Constitution to eliminate the possibility for ministers to evade criminal liability. As the European Chief Prosecutor noted, the Greek Parliament has the authority to introduce amendments to Article 86.
It is worth noting that civil society has also called for lifting ministerial immunity: in Greece, more than 1.3 million signatures have already been collected demanding that those responsible for the Tempi disaster be held accountable and that parliamentary immunity be abolished.
Criminal liability of ministers in Greece has long been a subject of debate and controversy in both political and academic circles. One major concern is that the prosecution of ministers in Greece is effectively carried out by the legislative – not judicial – branch (i.e., Parliament), which violates the principle of separation of powers. Although Article 86 of the Constitution was originally intended as a safeguard against unfounded accusations, in practice it has become a tool of impunity and political manipulation – and a basis for regular political abuses, when ministers are prosecuted by their political opponents after a change in government.
Even after the 2019 constitutional reform, only one controversial element was abolished – the extinguishing deadline, a special rule under which Parliament could launch an investigation only until the end of the second parliamentary session after the alleged offense. In practice, this meant a maximum period of about six years for initiating prosecution, after which criminal proceedings became impossible regardless of the gravity of the offense – effectively leading to systemic ministerial impunity. The core structure of the provision, however, remained unchanged.