| Author (Person) | King, Tim |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.10, No.32, 23.9.04 |
| Publication Date | 23/09/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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By Tim King Date: 23/09/04 OUT of €3 billion wrongly paid out through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the European Commission has recovered just one-fifth for the public purse. A report from the Court of Auditors describes the efforts of the Commission as "disappointingly partial and slow", complaining that three-quarters of irregular payments reported since 1971 are "pending", neither recovered nor written off. National administrations are required to notify the Commission of irregularities greater than €4,000 identified in CAP payments. The types of irregularity range from fictitious claims and false documents to inaccurate quantities. An estimate from the EU's anti-fraud office OLAF puts the total of such irregularities at €3.1bn. The Commission offers revised figures of €2.9bn but admits that by the end of 2002 only €603 million (20%) had been recovered and €297m (10%) had been written off as unrecoverable. David Bostock, member of the Court of Auditors with responsibility for agriculture, rejected the Commission's claims that it was making progress in redressing the recovery backlog saying that "there is still a long way to go". The Court found that export refunds and support for the fruit and vegetables sectors produced the most irregular payments. The cases with the highest value were both from Italy, one for €171m in support for the oilseed sector, another for €119m for cereals export refunds. The report cites as an example a combined Commission and member state investigation into export refunds for skimmed milk power. Irregular payments were uncovered in 1992 of €24.9m paid to a German company and €18.6m to a Belgian company. In the intervening 12 years, no money has ever been recovered. The Court also castigates the national administrations of the member states for being slow to report irregular payments and delaying recovery efforts. The rate of recovery is only 10% for cases in Italy and Germany, 13% in Spain, 15% in Belgium and 22% in Austria. In France it is 36% and in the UK 40%. The European Court of Auditors has released a report in which it criticizes the European Commission for lack of initiative concerning the recovery of CAP money that had been wrongly paid out since the 1970s. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Business and Industry, Economic and Financial Affairs |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
