Biggest ever CAP clawback in France
However, the 1.1 billion fine for farm aid wrongly claimed in France — by far the biggest bill ever against a country in the EU review of past subsidy payments — shows how serious the Commission is about overpayments.
France, the largest recipient of Common Agricultural Policy subsidies, (CAP), had initially faced a €3.5bn bill from the EU before negotiating it down, said agriculture minister Stephane Le Foll.
The French government will reimburse the amount over three years, and French farmers won’t be asked to pay, Le Foll said.
The €1.1bn represents about 2% of the farm aid received by France over the period.
The Commission’s claim against France mainly relates to inaccurate declarations of arable land between 2008 and 2012. It made up the bulk of around €1.4bn the EU wants to recoup from 14 member states, according to figures published in the official EU journal last week. Ireland is not included.
However, the Commission is seeking to disallow €181 million of funding to Ireland relating to ineligible payments over the past five years such as the single farm payment and agri-environment payments.
All of the lands declared by farmers for these payments must be free of ineligible features such as roads, buildings, farmyards, dense scrub, etc.
In December, €102m of EU agricultural policy funds, unduly spent by Member States, was claimed back. This included a €1m clawback from Ireland for absence of checks of fruit and veg recognition criteria compliance.
