An EU financial watchdog has slammed European governments and the European Commission for failing to ‘claw back’ billions in agriculture subsidies that farmers were not entitled to.
A special investigation by the European Court of Auditors found that three quarters of what are known as irregular payments made to farmers have not been recovered by either the Commission or member states.
It found that since 1971 some €3.1bn of irregular payments have been made, but only half a billion of this money has been paid back.
Irregular payments are monies claimed under the Common Agriculture Policy to which farmers are not entitled, either for administrative reasons or because of fraud.
Ireland comes out of the survey well, having the third highest recovery rate.
Between 1971 and last year, some €39m of irregular payments to Irish farmers were detected, of which €23m or 58%, were recovered by the State. The EU average was just 17%. Only Denmark and Finland have better records.
Italy and Germany, with a 10% recovery rate, and Spain with a 13% rate, were the worst countries surveyed.
The Court of Auditors has called for changes in the way funds are recovered, especially to the division of responsibility between the Commission and member states. It also criticised the reliability of figures supplied by national agriculture ministries.
