Press Release: Farm payments: Commission asks Romania to make further improvements to control system

The European Commission has welcomed progress made in Romania in putting in place the necessary controls over agricultural spending, but has asked Romania to make further improvements to its IT systems to avoid a provisional 25 percent cut in EU farm payments. Romania has announced that it will not make large-scale payments before the necessary controls are carried out. It has also put into place the software module for introducing the results of on-the-spot controls, and this has been verified by an independent auditor. However, the auditor has found major deficiencies in the software module designed to ensure that payments are made correctly. For this reason, it has been decided to continue the procedure for applying the 'safeguard mechanism', which would be introduced by a Commission decision foreseen for 20 December. However, on 15 December 2007, the Romanian authorities have to provide final accreditation to the agricultural paying agency PIAA. This accreditation exercise should cover the same issues. If the Romanian authorities, based on a report of the independent expert body, can prove by 16 December that the major deficiencies identified have been remedied, the procedure leading to the adoption of the safeguard mechanism will be stopped.