EU gives Romania month to avoid farm payment cut

BRUSSELS, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The European Commission gave Romania another month on Wednesday to fix its agricultural payments system or face cuts to farm subsidies from the European Union.

The EU executive last month gave the Black Sea newcomer to the bloc until Nov. 9 to make fully operational its farm payment scheme which is designed to prevent fraud.

But a recent audit showed Bucharest had failed to overhaul shortcomings in its computer system, despite improvements.

"If the Romanian authorities ... can prove by Dec. 16 that major deficiencies identified have been remedied, the procedure leading to the adoption of safeguard mechanism will be stopped," the Commission said in a statement.