The European Commission on Tuesday (26 February) fined the United Kingdom €111.7 million for failing to detect bogus farmland.
A number of farmers received direct payments from the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on land that was not arable.
Some of the so-called arable "parcels" were instead covered with trees, while buildings carpeted other areas.
The bogus information was handed over to the UK authorities between 2008 and 2010. The authorities are required to cros...
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Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.