A total of € 214.6 million of EU farm money unduly spent by Member States is claimed back as a result of a decision adopted by the European Commission. The money returns to the Community 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.

In the last review some mistakes in the management of funds have been identiffied in 18 Member States of the European Union, so that these countries will repay a total of almost 215 million euros to EU agricultural funds. This financial recovery for CAP undue expenditures amounted last December to a total of 528.5 million euros.

Under this latest decision funds will be recovered from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia. The most significant individual corrections are:

• € 48.1 and 22.9 million (for financial years 2007 and 2006) charged to France for weaknesses in on-the-spot checks and incorrect application of sanctions in the area of cross-compliance.
• € 31.7 million charged to Spain for deficiencies in key and ancillary controls and wrong application of sanctions in the sector of olive oil production.
• € 16.6 million charged to the Netherlands for weaknesses in Land Parcel Identification System, deficient administrative and on-the-spot controls and non-application of sanctions.
• € 12.0 million charged to Hungary for deficiencies in Land Parcel Identification System and other surface control weaknesses.
• € 10.0 million charged to Poland for low quality and insufficient quantity of checks in two Rural Development measures.