The Greek Minister of Rural Development and Food, Spilios Libanos, emphasized the will of the Ministry of Rural Development to take all necessary actions to deal with the chestnut wasp by allocating, in fact, funds significantly greater than those approved by the Government of SYRIZA for this purpose.

The main points of the response of the Ministry of Regional Development, Spilios Libanos, were:

The Greek Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure implemented a program to care for the chestnut wasp by supplying and launching the parasitic insect Torymus sinensis in the areas of the country where the presence of the insect was detected in previous years. The program was funded by the Agriculture and Livestock Fund and the parasite was released by the Benakeio Phytopathological Institute (MFI) in collaboration with the Forest Research Institute (ELGO-Dimitra) until 2019, while in 2020 there were some recent releases. of the beneficial insect.

During these years, a total of 79,200 adult insects were released in a total of 400 locations in 20 Regional Units.

The objective of the Program was to create places throughout the territory where the beneficial insect will develop its population, so that gradually in the coming years from these places it spreads naturally.

During this year, in collaboration with the IMF, field surveys will be carried out to verify the presence of the beneficial insect not only at the initial release sites, but also at a distance from them, which will indicate the natural spread of the beneficial insect.

Among the areas where the beneficial insect was released was Larissa Prefecture, and especially the Agia and Tempi area.

In addition, and taking into account that the special relief of the area that does not favor the easy spread of the beneficial insect, the Municipality of Agia presented a study for the additional release of the beneficial insect under Measure 8.3.2 of the PDR 2014-2020 entitled "Implementation of biologicals of the insect Dryocosmus kuriphilus (chestnut wasp) in the municipal forests of the Municipality of Agia ”.

This application from the Municipality has been approved for funding by the PDR 2014-2020 after a positive evaluation by the Directorate of Coordination and Inspection of Forests of AD Thessaly-Central Greece (action 8.3.2_1). Eligible public expenditure amounts to € 545,444.39.

Therefore, all necessary actions are taken to address the issue in the next period, with the allocation of funds significantly greater than those approved by the SYRIZA government.