The European Commission is to claw back 539 million ecu of EU funds

Date: 24/04/1997

paid out improperly by member states during 1993. Over 263 million ecu are fines already agreed for the failure of Italy, Spain and Greece to respect their national milk quotas. Considerable sums in export refunds were found to have been paid out fraudulently, Greece was fined 32 million ecu for irregularities in the olive oil sector and a penalty of 15 million ecu was imposed on France for insufficient control over public storage of cereals. Cases involving a further 120 million ecu are still going through the conciliation procedure.