Cash handouts to French beef farmers have auditors on alert

Date: 10/10/02

By David Cronin

MAJOR weaknesses in implementing a l4 billion farm support system aimed at discouraging beef farmers from rearing too many cows have been detected in France.

The discovery is reported in a new study by the European Court of Auditors examining whether moves away from intensive farming methods - dubbed extensification in EU jargon - work in practice.

According to the Luxembourg-based financial watchdog, the databases used to administer payments under the scheme in France were prone to error.

This resulted, for example, in 13,500 beef farmers in the Saône-et-Loire region being sent forms asking them to declare how many animals they had - even though the number of eligible holdings there was less than half that figure.

Roughly l4 billion was spent on the extensification premium and payment schemes (EPS) in 1994-2000. The EPS was introduced as part of the 1992 reforms to the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.

While the auditors admit that 'detailed objectives' for the EPS are not set out in the rules covering it, the scheme was designed to deter excessive production and encourage farmers to take greater care of the environment.

But the auditors found there was little incentive for farmers rearing vast numbers of livestock to cut back.

Often it was only those with stock densities slightly above those required for EPS eligibility that reduced their holdings in order to increase the amount of EU subsidies they receive.

At present, the maximum stock allowed while still qualifying for EPS cash is two adult cows per hectare.

The auditors also state that the European Commission has 'not yet systematically collected information to assess the impact of the EPS on extensive farming practices'.

Lax controls identified by the auditors include:

• The use of binoculars to check how many cows a farmer had - a method which 'did not guarantee that the animals concerned were correctly identified'.
• In the UK, English farmers who grew rape as fodder for cows were excluded from the scheme, while Scottish rape growers were allowed to avail themselves of EPS; this anomaly prompted the Commission to tell Britain all rape growers should be excluded.
• On-the-spot inspections in Austria revealed that the area of pasture qualifying for the scheme was overstated by 61.

Replying to the auditors' findings, the Commission said the problems pinpointed are 'considered to be the normal difficulties encountered when a new aid regime is established'. The executive added it is following up the auditors' complaints.

Major weaknesses in implementing a €l4 billion farm support system aimed at discouraging beef farmers from rearing too many cows have been detected in France.