Brussels, 15/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is to recover €530 million from member states for irregularities in CAP (common agricultural policy) spending. Greece is the most concerned having to pay back the sum of €260 million for failure to comply with EU rules or for inadequate control procedures on agricultural expenditure.
This decision, announced by the European Commission on Friday 15 April, provides for funds to be recovered from Bulgaria, Denmark, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and the United Kingdom, as well as a small reimbursement made to Germany. The most significant individual corrections are: - €137.23 million charged to Greece for ineligible expenditure and major shortcomings in the olive cultivation geographical information system (GIS) and on-the-spot controls; - €122.38 million charged to Greece with regard to insufficient on-the-spot checks and deficiencies in the land parcel identification system (LPIS-GIS) and in administrative cross-checks for area aid (also relates to area based rural development measures); - and €74.9 million charged to Romania for the weaknesses in the LPIS-GIS relating to administrative cross-checks, provision of inaccurate information to farmers and ineffective on-the-spot verification with regard to area aid (also relates to area based rural development measures). (L.C./transl.jl)