A total of 528.5 M€ of EU farm money unduly spent by Member States will be claimed back as a result of a decision adopted 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.

Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, commented this decission saying that the Commission is “working extremely hard to maintain the best possible control over farm spending. The Court of Auditors has noted considerable improvements in our control system over recent years and we are striving to make things better still. This is taxpayers' money and they have a right to know it is being spent wisely."

Main financial corrections on EU CAP expenditures

Under this latest decision, the 29th since the 1995 reform of the system for recovering unduly spent CAP money, funds will be recovered from Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden. The most significant individual corrections are:

• 105.5 M€ charged to Italy for weaknesses in key and ancillary controls in the sector of olive oil production;
• 84.7 M€ charged to United Kingdom for not keeping payment deadlines;
• 83.6 M€ charged to Greece for weaknesses in key and ancillary controls in the sector of olive oil production;
• 67.4 M€ charged to Greece for insufficient controls and exceeding the eligible levels of production in the cotton sector;
• 57.0 M€ charged to Italy for not keeping payment deadlines.

This financial recovery for CAP undue expenditures amounted last July to a total of 410.3 M€.