Last month, in Brussels, the European Commission announced that, under the so-called clearance of accounts procedure, it was to recover €436 of agricultural policy funds which had been unduly spent by some Member States. The money to be returned to the EU budget, which is being reclaimed because of non-compliance with EU rules or inadequate control procedures on agricultural expenditure, will actually be closer to €426 million as some has already been repaid. Regarding the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), payment of funding is the responsibility of the Member States (mainly via their paying agencies) and it is up to them to ensure that it is spent correctly such as by verifying the farmer's claims for direct payments. By contrast the Commission, whose role is to ensure that Member States have made used the funds appropriately, "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." (IP/12/678)

Owing to the current financial crisis, and the financial pressures being felt by some Member States, the Commission has adopted a regulation which enables thoses Member States under financial assistance to delay, on certain conditions, the reimbursement of disallowed funds for up to 18 months. This will be in addition to existing options which allow Member States to spread repayment over a number of years. Currently Greece is the first Member State to make use of this facility. Under this latest decision the majority of the funds to be recovered will come 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." (IP/12/678)

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