Question for written answer E-012955/2015 to the Commission
Rule 130
Julie Girling (ECR)
Subject: CAP disallowance penalties
I have been trying to obtain comparative data on so-called ‘disallowance penalties’ imposed on Member States by the Commission when it believes that Member States have not complied with its requirements for the proper control and administration of payments under CAP.
I have found that the UK has incurred fines of over GBP 640 million since 2005 (from the UK’s National Audit Office), but I cannot find anywhere on the DG AGRI website what fines have been imposed on other Member States.
I am aware that information on the procedure to recover EU agricultural policy funds, unduly spent by Member States, can be found on the DG AGRI website , and that each individual fine is published in the Official Journal, but this does not give a cumulative picture of the total level of fines, nor does it allow for a comparison between Member States.
Is the Commission able to provide such data, and can it explain why such comparative data is not readily available to the public?
EN E-012955/2015
Answer given by Mr Hogan on behalf of the Commission
The Commission provides summary cumulative data on financial corrections per Member State for the European Agriculture Guarantee Fund (EAGF) in its annual Communication to the European Parliament and the Council on the protection of the EU budget. The data is provided in both absolute and percentage terms. The Commission refers the Honourable Member to the latest Communication (see Table 4.2.2). The Commission will be sending directly to the Honourable Member and to Parliament’s Secretariat a table containing the summary cumulative data (since 2009) on financial corrections for the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).
Financial corrections cannot be qualified as “penalties” or “fines”. Rather, they relate to expenditure which as regards the EAGF has not been spent by the Member States in conformity with EU rules or as regards the EAFRD has not been spent in conformity with the applicable EU and national rules, and which are therefore recovered to the EU budget. A penalty or fine, however, implies a sanction over and above the undue expendtiture which is not the case for DG AGRI’s financial corrections.