A total of € 346.5 million of EU farm money unduly spent by Member States is claimed back as a result of a conformity clearance procedure decision adopted by the European Commission. The 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. This financial recovery for CAP undue expenditures amounted last September to a total of 214,6 million euros.

Main financial corrections

Under this latest decision, funds will be recovered from Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden. The most significant individual corrections are:

• € 47.5 million charged to Spain for ineligible costs and for weaknesses in the control system in the fruit and vegetables sector;
• € 92 million charged to Poland for various weaknesses in area aids for the years 2006-2007;
• € 105.5 million charged to Greece for weaknesses in the control system for cotton and €18.5 million for rural development measures, for severe and persistent weaknesses in the IACS system;
• € 14.2 million charged to United Kingdom for failure to meet the statutory deadlines for direct payments;
• € 10.4 million (for financial years 2003-2005) charged to the Netherlands for insufficient quantity of substitution checks performed in calendar years 2003 and 2004 in the sector of export refunds.