Despite repeated requests from the European Commission, most of the levy due from milk producers has still not been recovered by Italian authorities, a report published on Wednesday 26 April states.
In the report assessing the progress reported by Italy on the recovery of the amount due from milk producers by virtue of the additional levy for the periods 1995/96 to 2001/02, the Commission considers that, “insofar as the conditions for the implementation of the instalment scheme approved by the Council in 2003 are met, the progress made by the Italian authorities in recovering the amount due from the producers who opted to pay under the instalment scheme for the periods 1995/96 to 2001/02 demonstrates that the scheme has been managed in a satisfactory manner”.
This is far from being the case with the amounts of levy not covered by the instalment schemes: Commission has already “expressed … its dissatisfaction with the lack of significant progress in recovering the milk quota levy”, the report says. “No major new developments can be reported in the actual collection of the levy not covered by the instalment schemes.” And it was for this reason that, on 6 August 2015, the Commission lodged an action, under Article 258 TFEU, for failure to fulfil obligations with the Court of Justice of the EU (case C-433/15). The Court has yet to deliver its ruling.
Payment of the levy under the 2003 instalment scheme. The Council decision authorising Italy itself to make payment to the European Union budget of the additional levy due from its milk producers related to 25,123 producers in 2005, the date of the first report to the Council. This figure fell to 21,189 for 2015. The report states that, according to checks carried out by the Italian authorities, 10,540 producers duly made payments totalling €24.3 million in the course of 2015, which means that 97.55% of the producers paid 95.7% of the amounts due under the twelfth instalment within the time limit.
Additional levy due for the period 2002/2003. For this period, there remains €120.42 million due under the additional levy to the European Union budget from milk producers who did not join the 2009 instalment scheme.
Levy charged for the periods 1995/1996 to 2008/2009 and not covered by either the 2003 instalment scheme or the 2009 reimbursement system. The total amount of levy charged for the periods 1995/96 to 2008/09, as notified by Italy, is €2.303 billion. Of this amount, €671.8 million was recovered by Italy between 2003 and 2015: €333.3 million under the 2003 instalment scheme, €6.81 million under the 2009 reimbursement system and €331.65 million outside the instalment schemes.
Of the remaining amount, €1.63 billion: - a small part (€71.77 million) is covered by the instalment schemes established by Italy in 2003 and 2009; - €276.46 million has been declared irrecoverable following bankruptcy of the producer or cancellation of the levy by court; - there remains €1.28 billion due from the producers who have refused to opt into the instalment schemes, most of whom have contested the additional levy before the Italian courts.
The Commission notes that “the figures provided by the Italian administration show insignificant progress has been made” in collecting the amounts from outside the instalment schemes (€1.28 billion) which represent 94.7 % of the overall amounts still due by virtue of the levy for the periods 1995/96 to 2008/09 (€1.35 billion). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)