A total of EUR 265.02 million (GBP 223.5m) of EU farm money unduly spent by Member States is claimed back as a result of a decision adopted by the European Commission. This money returns to the EU budget because of non-compliance with EU rules or inadequate control procedures on agricultural expenditure.
Member States are responsible for paying out and checking expenditure under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and the Commission is required to ensure that Member States have made correct use of the funds.
Commenting on the decision, Dacian Cioloş, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said: "We are working hard to achieve the best possible control of farm spending in order to verify that taxpayers money is not being misspent."
Main financial corrections
Under this latest decision funds will be recovered from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and United Kingdom.
The most significant individual corrections are:
- EUR 137.0 million (GBP 115.6m) charged to United Kingdom – England for weaknesses in the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS-GIS), in the administrative procedure as regards controls and cross checks, deficiencies in the risk analysis, and for incorrect calculation of payments and sanctions;
- EUR 52.4 million (GBP 45.7m) charged to United Kingdom – England for, inter alia, insufficient checks of beneficiaries under the investors category of the National Reserve, transcription errors, absence of control with regard to new farmers;
- EUR 33.7 million (GBP 28.4m) charged to United Kingdom – Northern Ireland for weaknesses related to the LPIS-GIS, and in on-the-spot checks and deficiencies in the application of regulatory sanctions;
- EUR 11.0 million (GBP 9.3m) charged to Hungary for incorrect exchange rate and value added tax incorrectly included for establishing the purchase value of white sugar into public storage.
