A mafia network in Sicily that embezzled around €10 million of EU funds intended for farmers has been dismantled, Italian police announced on Wednesday 15 January.
Among those arrested were two heads of Mafia families, a notary, entrepreneurs and public officials responsible for accessing these funds.
The European Commission has indicated that it takes the fight against fraud and corruption in the use of EU funds “very seriously” and that a policy of “zero tolerance” is applied.
It recalled that it was primarily the task of Member States to ensure that “robust” measures were in place to manage these funds and to act upon suspicions of misuse. The spokesperson for the Commission said investigations were ongoing in Italy and that mechanisms are in place to “recover” the funds and thus avoid “penalising” the European budget and taxpayers.
Since 2013, the Tortorici mafia has embezzled nearly €10 million in EU funds. In order to obtain this EU funding, the clan fraudulently claimed ownership of land that actually belonged to the region and the local councils. The operation was made possible thanks to the complicity of employees of a public agency that distributes EU funds to farmers. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)