A total of € 256.3 million of EU farm money unduly spent by Member States will be claimed back as a result of a decision adopted today by the European Commission. The money returns to the Community budget because of inadequate control procedures or non-compliance with EU rules 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.

Main financial corrections
Under this latest decision, the 26th since the 1995 reform of the system for recovering unduly spent CAP money, funds will be recovered from Belgium, Cyprus; Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Sweden and Slovenia. The most significant individual corrections are:

• € 183.9 million charged to Spain for shortcomings or lack of checks on crop declarations and yields as well as on monitoring the controls of mills in the olive oil production sector;
• € 16.6 million charged to region of Andalucía in Spain for weaknesses in on-the-spot checks (remote sensing and classical field visits) for area aids;
• € 10.5 million charged to Italy for weaknesses in management and control of the quota system in the tobacco production scheme;
• € 9.7 million charged to Great Britain for late payments mainly in the extensification premium.