Brussels, 30/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - In its special report (no. 8/2012) published on Wednesday 30 May, the Court of Auditors of the EU concluded that measure 121 “Modernisation of agricultural holdings” (€11 billion between 2007 and 2013) will help to improve the cost-efficiency ratio, as long as the available funds are better targeted.
The Court's audit showed that measure 121 for rural development, “Modernisation of agricultural holdings”, has achieved its main objective, in that it has allowed holdings to be modernised. However, it has concluded that the achievement of this objective was practically a done deal from the start, as almost all investments or acquisitions of new equipment can be considered to bring about a certain degree of modernisation to satisfy the eligibility criteria, which were not particularly selective.
Although the member states are obliged to grant investment aid for the funding of clearly defined requirements in their rural areas, the extent to which the aid was targeted varied considerably among the member states which were checked. In order to achieve an initial targeting of the aid, most member states applied restrictive eligibility conditions (as was the case in Hungary and Germany (Baden-Württemberg). However, in other member states (such as Luxembourg and Poland), almost all types of agriculture investment were eligible. Two member states carried out a high level of targeting by selecting the best projects among those declared eligible (such as Venice, in Italy, and Romania).
The Court also states that in Germany (Baden-Württemberg), Spain (Catalonia), France, Hungary and Portugal (continental), national procedures led to selection criteria being laid down and then used to evaluate all of the projects. However, as the budget allocated to the measure was sufficient, subsidies were granted to all projects declared eligible, irrespective of the results of this assessment. In France for example, the authorities declared eligible a project to build stables for a sum of €76,000, even though this project did not get any points under the assessment, as it did not relate to any of the priorities laid down by the measure. In Belgium, Luxembourg and Poland, no selection criteria were set. (LC/transl.fl)