Brussels, 20/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission adopted a decision on 13 November (published in the Official Journal of Friday 20 November) excluding €276 million spent by member states under the European agricultural guarantee fund (EAGF) and the European agricultural fund for rural development (EAFRD) from European Union financing.
This spending was declared, after verification, to have been irregular. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France (€11.5 million, mainly in the area of wines), Greece (€12.6 million, but implementation of the decision has been delayed until 2017), Ireland (€58.3 million in direct aid deemed irregular), Italy (€46.8 million, largely resulting from failure to comply with conditionality of aid rules), Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands (€51 million, relating to producer organisations in the fruit and vegetable sector), Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom (€34 million in the area of fruit and vegetables) are all affected by this decision. There is also money to be recovered in the area of rural development. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)