Under the so-called “clearance of accounts procedure”, the European Commission claims for a total of € 530 million of EU agricultural policy funds unduly spent by Member States.

Member States are responsible for managing most CAP payments, mainly via their paying agencies. They are also in charge of controls. On the other hand, the Commission carries out over 100 audits every year, verifying that Member State controls and responses to shortcomings are sufficient, and has the power to claw back funds in arrears if the audits show that Member State responses are not good enough to guarantee that EU funds have been spent properly. The Commission is therefore required to ensure that Member States have made correct use of the funds. This money returns to the EU budget because of non-compliance with EU rules or inadequate control procedures on agricultural expenditure.

After applied the main financial corrections, funds will be recovered from Bulgaria, Denmark, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and United Kingdom while there is a small reimbursement made to Germany. These corrections are made periodically.

The financial correction is proportional with the rate of error. The decision comes after a conciliation process between the Commission and Member States on the basis of objective data on the ground and the risk of misuse of funds.