Commission claws back €200m in misused farm subsidies

BRUSSELS - The European Commission is to claw back over €200 million in farm subsidies from 18 member states as a result of mis-spending, the EU executive announced on Tuesday (29 September).

In total, €214.6 million of EU farm monies unduly spent by countries due to non-compliance with EU rules or inadequate control procedures on agricultural expenditure will return to community coffers.

"The commission is keeping up the pressure to ensure the best possible controls over how this money is spent," said agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, commenting on the decision.

"The system is working better than ever and we will continue to strive to improve things further," she added.

Some €71 million is being demanded back from France in what is the biggest bill for misuse of funds, for weaknesses in on-the-spot checks over the course of 2006 and 2007.

Spain is charged €31.7 million for deficiencies in its system of checks and fines in the olive oil production sector.

The Netherlands is being asked to return €16.6 million for weaknesses in its its system of identifying plots of land, deficient administrative and on-the-spot controls and not imposing fines on scofflaw farmers.

Hungary has also been presented with demand for €12m for problems with its system of identifying plots of land and Poland will have to cough up €10 million for low quality and insufficient quantity of checks in two rural development measures.

Funds are also to be recovered from Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, the UK, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal and Slovenia.

According to EU division of responsibilities in the agricultural sector, the member states are in charge of paying out and checking expenditure under Europe's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), while the commission is charged with ensuring that member states have made correct use of the funds.