Greeks increasingly trust European justice

European prosecutor’s office is increasingly perceived by the Greeks not as external pressure, but like a chance for institutional cleansing. The reason is simple and painful: trust in one’s own justice system has collapsed.

Greeks are traditionally sensitive to interference from external forcesbut attitudes towards European institutions are beginning to change. According to company research QED For pod.grthe majority of citizens increasingly see in the decisions of European courts and European Prosecutor’s Office not a humiliation of national sovereignty, but a chance to cleanse weak domestic institutions.

For Greece, the topic of “foreign intervention” is historically charged. Various events stand side by side in national memory: from Battle of Navarinowhere external forces played a positive role in the creation of the Greek state, before Asia Minor disasterdictatorship of the “black colonels”, crisis in Imia and tough years of memorandums. In the mass consciousness, this often developed into a familiar formula: “Foreigners are deciding our fate again”.

But research QEDconducted in May 2026 among 500 people, shows a shift. Although the majority of Greeks still view the role of external forces in a number of historical events negatively, modern interventions by European judicial and supervisory institutions are perceived much more calmly – and often positively.

Why European justice is more trustworthy

The key reason is not the sudden love of the Greeks for Brussels. Everything is much simpler and sadder: citizens trust their own justice system less and less. According to the study, two out of three respondents trust European Prosecutor’s Office more than Greek justice. For a country where the word “reform” has been used for decades as packaging for yet another compromise, this is a rather harsh diagnosis.

Investigations played a special role European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO)related to the case of illegal agricultural subsidies through ΟΠΕΚΕΠΕ (Greek authority for the payment of public agricultural subsidies). According to Greek media, the case involves allegations of illegal receipt of European funds, and the damage in individual episodes is estimated at millions of euros.

It is significant that almost 80% of survey participants considered the intervention European Prosecutor’s Office into action ΟΠΕΚΕΠΕ necessary, and some actually salutary. Image of the head of EPPO Laura Kövesi also strengthened confidence in the institution: against the backdrop of fatigue from internal compromises, the European prosecutor’s office looks to many Greeks as an external mechanism that at least tries to bring cases to an end.

From the victim complex to the request for control

The most important indicator of the study is the attitude towards Greece’s obligations to European institutions. 55% respondents see the decisions of such structures as European Court, European Central Bank And European prosecutor’s officethe possibility of institutional cleansing of the country. Only 25% consider this mainly at the cost of Greece’s participation in European Union.

This is a serious psychological turn. In the old logic, any external pressure was easily explained as another attempt to “bring Greece to its knees.” Now, more and more citizens seem to be asking a different question: if internal institutions fail, if investigations bog down, if political responsibility is dissolved in procedures, then why should external control automatically be considered evil?

Of course, European institutions are not angels with seals and regulations. They also have political interests, bureaucracy, double standards and the habit of lecturing those who are weaker. But in a situation where the national judicial system loses public confidence, external oversight begins to be perceived not as an occupation, but as an unpleasant but necessary insurance policy.

The European Prosecutor’s Office and the Greek problem of trust

Recent months have shown that Athens’s relations with European Public Prosecutor’s Office enter a tense phase. EPPO has already expressed concern about Greek legal changes, which it believes could make it more difficult for independent investigations into cases involving European funds and the possible liability of political persons.

For Greek society, this is not an abstract dispute among lawyers. We are talking about a simple question: who is capable of investigating cases where money intersects EUgovernment structures, party connections and possible enrichment schemes? If citizens do not believe that a national system can do this, they begin to look at Europe not as a taskmaster, but as a last resort.

Editorial comment

It is high time for Greece to emerge from its comfortable role as an eternal victim of external forces. Yes, the country’s history is full of cases when foreign interests passed through it like a heavy roller. But turning this into a universal justification for any internal weakness is too convenient a way to not change anything.

If European prosecutor’s office is capable of revealing schemes that Greek institutions have not reached for years or have reached too cautiously, then the issue is no longer a matter of “national pride.” The question is why our own system does not inspire such trust. Because sovereignty is not the right to hide dirt under the carpet. Sovereignty is the ability to keep institutions in working order.

In this sense, European intervention may not be a humiliation, but a mirror. Unpleasant, cold, bureaucratic, but still a mirror. And if Greece sees in it not Brussels, but its own judicial weakness, then the problem is not in the mirror.

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