Brussels, 02/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission decided on Tuesday 2 December to reduce reimbursement of CAP payments to Greece by €17 million because of continued administrative problems in the management of the country's land parcel identification system (LPIS).
“It is the first time that the Commission has used this new budget management option, but it is very important that our budget rules are respected”, said Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Phil Hogan.
The LPIS is a key element of the European Union's integrated administration and control system (IACS), which allows the amount of land devoted to agriculture to be measured by means of a combination of aerial photographs, satellite images and land registry documents. It provides the basis for management of requests for financial support.
Several Commission audits carried out in the last three years have shown that the Greek LPIS is still not in compliance with the EU rules. As a consequence, the maximum eligible area recorded in the LPIS is “overstated, which has led to irregular payments being made to beneficiaries under the single payment scheme”, the Commission says. Despite the action plan set up by the Greek authorities and the efforts made to remedy the situation, “an audit carried out beginning of November 2014 confirmed that the objectives of the action plan were still not met and could not be achieved in the immediate future” (that is, for the payments relating to claim year 2014). (LC)