‘EU budget must be used wisely’

THE European Union’s €88 billion rural development budget over the next six years must be spent well, Commissioner Marian Fischer Boel has warned.

“There is no room for poor management,” she told a seminar on Brussels, after predicting that in 2013 rural development would take up 21% of the Common Agricultural Policy budget for that year.

Ms Fischer Boel said traditionally it’s the first pillar of the policy that has been subjected to the most scrutiny. But sometimes success breeds new challenges.

The Court of Auditors has given first-pillar direct payments a positive Statement of Assurance.

However, the court has revealed weaknesses as regards rural development that she is keen to see removed. “Sound financial management and proper controls must be our priority for all types of subsidies. We should be irreproachable,” she said.

Ms Fischer Boel said another reason why the EU could not relax is that more is being asked of rural development policy.

“As new tasks present themselves our current set of tasks will remain with us for the foreseeable future. We will still have to improve the competitiveness of farming and forestry, care for the countryside, encourage economic diversification, and raise the quality of life in rural areas,” she said.

Ms Fischer Boel said as a first step she would propose a significant increase to the rate of compulsory modulation to be effective before 2013.

“This is the only realistic way of giving our rural development policy the fuel that it needs within the current financial perspectives,” she said.