European Commission
Press release
Brussels, 22 June 2012
Commission to recover € 426 million of CAP expenditure from the Member States
A total of €436 million of EU agricultural policy funds unduly spent by Member States is being claimed back by the European Commission today under the so-called clearance of accounts procedure. As some of these amounts have already been recovered from the Member States, the financial impact is somewhat lower at €426 million. 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), and the Commission is required to ensure that Member States have made correct use of the funds. 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. The first Member State to apply for this facility is Greece.
Main financial corrections
Under this latest decision, 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;
• € 11.6 million charged to Greece with regard to the absence of the sugar production and storage control system.
Member States are responsible for managing most CAP payments, mainly via their paying agencies. They are also in charge of controls, for example verifying the farmer's claims for direct payments. The Commission carries out over 100 audits every year, verifying that Member State controls and responses to shortcomings are sufficient, and has the power to claw back funds in arrears if the audits show that Member State responses are not good enough to guarantee that EU funds have been spent properly.
For details on how the clearance of annual accounts system works, see MEMO/12/109 and the factsheet "Managing the agriculture budget wisely", available on the internet at:
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/fin/clearance/factsheet_en.pdf .
Details of the individual corrections, by Member State and by sector, are given in the tables attached (annexes I and II).
Contacts : Roger Waite (+32 2 296 14 04) Fanny Dabertrand (+32 2 299 06 25) |
Annex I - Clearance of accounts of EAGF and EAFRD
Decision 38: Corrections by Member state (In Million €)
Sector and reason for correction | Amount of correction | Amount of financial impact of the correction1 |
Denmark |
| |
Livestock Premiums - correction proposed for non application of sanctions regarding the special beef premium | 0.116 | 0.116 |
Estonia | ||
Rural Development - correction proposed for weaknesses in the verification of the reasonableness of the costs and deficiencies in controls leading to a risk of double financing | 0.798 | 0.798 |
France | ||
Livestock Premiums - correction proposed for late entry into the database of movements of animals, weaknesses in the verification of supporting documents, deficiencies in the application of notion of obvious error and in the access to the national identification data base for the slaughterhouses | 62.919 | 62.919 |
Germany |
| |
Other corrections - correction proposed for the known errors in the EAGF and EAFRD population discovered in the framework of financial clearance of accounts for financial year 2008 | 0.170 | 0.170 |
Greece |
| |
Export refunds - correction proposed for the absence of sugar production and storage control systems | 11.580 | 11.580 |
Fruits and Vegetables - correction proposed for the insufficient number of administrative controls and non application of sanctions in the framework of citrus processing | 0.513 | 0.513 |
Fruits and Vegetables - correction proposed for the weaknesses with regards to the minimum yield for the dried grapes | 71.506 | 71.506 |
Wine - correction proposed for the plantation of vine without the (re-)plantation rights | 21.336 | 21.336 |
Italy |
| |
Fruits and Vegetables - correction proposed for the payments made after the regulatory deadline | 0.515 | 0.515 |
Fruits and Vegetables - correction proposed for the insufficient check of tomato production yield | 8.747 | 8.747 |
Fruits and Vegetables - correction proposed for the weaknesses in the administrative and accounting checks | 2.784 | 2.784 |
Wine - correction proposed for the plantation of vine without the (re-)plantation rights | 98.881 | 98.881 |
Rural Development - correction proposed for the late on-the-spot checks for Agri-Environment measures and for weaknesses in the announcement of the on-the-spot checks | 0.663 | 0.663 |
The Netherlands | ||
Other corrections - correction proposed for errors discovered during the financial clearance of accounts for financial year 2007 | 0.081 | 0.081 |
Poland | ||
Cross-compliance - correction proposed with regard to non-definition of some Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions and weaknesses in sanctioning system | 13.287 | 13.141 |
Portugal |
| |
Livestock Premiums - correction proposed for non-application of sanctions and excluding certain population from on-the-spot checks | 0.110 | 0.110 |
Other corrections - correction proposed for the errors discovered in the framework of financial clearance of accounts for financial year 2008 | 1.405 | 1.405 |
Romania | ||
Late Payments - correction proposed for failure to meet payment deadlines | 7.674 | reimbursement of 1.726 |
Slovenia | ||
Other corrections - correction proposed for the errors discovered in the framework of financial clearance of accounts for financial year 2008 | 0.008 | 0.008 |
Other corrections - correction proposed for the errors discovered in the framework of financial clearance of accounts for financial year 2009 | 0.006 | 0.006 |
Spain | ||
Wine - correction proposed for the plantation of vine without the (re-)plantation rights | 131.301 | 131.301 |
Rural Development - correction proposed for deficiencies in the on-the-spot checks, in the measurement of agricultural parcels, in the application of Good Farming Practices in the measure of Agri-environment and Less-favoured areas | 1.061 | 1.061 |
The United Kingdom | ||
Export refunds - correction proposed for deficiency in substitution checks | 0.002 | 0.002 |
Livestock premiums - correction proposed for non-application of sanctions in case of non-compliance related to claimed animals above the quota, payments to claimants with less than 10 quota rights and deficiencies in application of penalty for missing animals | 0.055 | 0.055 |
TOTAL | 435.519 | 425.973 |
Annex II - Clearance of accounts of EAGF and EAFRD
Decision 38: Corrections by Sector (In Million €)
Sector | Amount of correction | Amount of financial impact of the correction2 |
|
|
|
Export refunds | 11.582 | 11.582 |
|
|
|
Fruit & vegetables | 84.065 | 84.065 |
|
|
|
Wine | 251.518 | 251.518 |
Livestock premiums | 63.201 | 63.201 |
Cross-compliance | 13.287 | 13.141 |
Rural Development | 2.522 | 2.522 |
Late payments | 7.674 | -1.726 |
|
|
|
Other corrections | 1.670 | 1.670 |
|
|
|
TOTAL | 435.519 | 425.973 |
Financial impact of the correction is taking into account the previous overlapping corrections and amounts already recovered by the European Commission
Financial impact of the correction is taking into account the previous overlapping corrections and amounts already recovered by the European Commission
