The European Commission will recover a total of €436 million of CAP expenditure from the Member States. This money returns to the EU budget because of non-compliance with EU rules or inadequate control procedures on agricultural expenditure. In addition, in order to take account of the financial pressures being felt by some Member States due to the financial crisis, the reimbursement of disallowed funds will be up to 18 months for some Member States. The first Member State to apply for this facility is Greece.

Under the so-called clearance of accounts procedure, a total of €436 million of EU agricultural policy funds unduly spent by Member States is being claimed back by the European Commission. The Commission is required to ensure that Member States have made correct use of the funds, thus, 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). In October 2011, €214 million of CAP expenditure from the Member States was to recover by the Commission.

With regard to the main financial corrections, funds will be recovered from Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom. The most significant individual corrections are €131.3 million charged to Spain for plantation of vine without the (re-) plantation rights; €98.9 million charged to Italy for plantation of vine without the (re-) plantation rights; €71.5 million charged to Greece for the weaknesses in the controls of dried grapes; €62.9 million charged to France for deficiencies in controls of the bovine premiums; €21.3 million charged to Greece for plantation of vine without the (re-) plantation rights; €13.3 million (financial impact: €13.1 million) charged to Poland for a deficient sanctioning system and non-defined Good Agricultural and Environment Conditions (GAEC) with regard to cross-compliance; and €11.6 million charged to Greece with regard to the absence of the sugar production and storage control system.

On the other hand, in order to take account of the financial pressures being felt by some Member States due to the financial crisis, the Commission has adopted a regulation allowing Member States under financial assistance to delay, on certain conditions, the reimbursement of disallowed funds for up to 18 months. This comes in addition to existing options to request that the reimbursement be spread over a limited number of years.