ATHENS (Reuters) -Europe is losing an estimated 50 billion euros ($58 billion) a year from tax and customs fraud, which are now the most attractive criminal activities in the bloc, and more needs to be done to fight the gangs responsible, the EU’s top prosecutor said.
Laura Codruta Kovesi was speaking on Thursday at Piraeus port in Athens, where The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has been carrying out a major probe.
“We want to send the criminals behind this massive fraud a strong message: the rules of the game have changed, no more safe havens for you!” Kovesi told reporters at Piraeus. “We have to fight back. As Europeans.”
EPPO has been probing a string of fraud cases that have rocked Greece, including a case dubbed “Calypso” that involved alleged gangs extending from China to at least 14 EU countries, which were operating out of Piraeus.
The agency has confiscated over 2,400 shipping containers at the port, which is majority-owned by China’s COSCO, in the largest seizure to date across the EU.
Gangs allegedly underreported the value of goods coming from China into the EU, resulting in lost VAT revenue and duties of around 800 million euros since 2017, EPPO says.
EPPO’s investigations in recent years have also indicated that state corruption, which helped plunge Greece into a 2009-2018 debt crisis, has not been uprooted. Some of the cases have hurt the centre-right government’s popularity.
During her visit to Greece this week, Kovesi said she sought the deployment of more prosecutors and resources for EPPO in Athens. Ministers pledged support.
She also urged Greece to amend laws protecting politicians from prosecution, adding that such immunity hinders EPPO’s probes.
EPPO has referred two cases to the Greek parliament, the only body that can investigate ministers under the constitution.
One of them is linked to Greece’s worst rail disaster in 2023. The most recent case relates to Greek farmers and state officials suspected of defrauding the EU of subsidies for the use of pastureland since 2019.
($1 = 0.8507 euros)
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Adidtional reporting Yannis Souliotis; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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