Press Release: Farm payments: Commission decides not to apply ‘safeguard mechanism’ in Romania

Following rapid progress by the Romanian authorities in putting in place the necessary controls over agricultural spending, the European Commission today decided not to apply the so-called 'safeguard mechanism' in Romania. In November, the Commission asked Romania to make further improvements to the software module designed to ensure that farm payments are made correctly, in order to avoid a provisional 25 percent cut in EU payments. A new report from the independent expert (Deloitte) concludes that no major deficiencies remain to be solved for this IT module. As such, the activation of the safeguard mechanism cannot be justified. The decision not to use the safeguard does not imply that everything is perfect. As in all new systems, certain problems may only emerge when payments start. In addition, Romania still needs to increase its control rate and there are still some IT deficiencies to be solved. The Commission will continue to monitor closely the situation and carry out controls in Romania early in 2008. It has the possibility of introducing the safeguard at any time if serious shortcomings are found. In addition, Romania will as all other Member States be subject to the normal audit procedures which are carried out in all Member States and which allow misspent money to be claimed back.