The sum defined as “corresponding to irregular expenses in the EU agricultural budget” amounts to 128.2 million Euros. The European Commission has decided to recover this money from the member states that in recent months, and on various grounds, have been found liable for violations of Community regulations on farm expenditure as part of the CUP, the Common Agricultural Policy of the Twenty-Five. This is the 21st decision for refunds since 1995, the year of the reform of the “system for the recovery of wrongly disbursed sums”. The countries most in debt for CUP violations are Italy (which alone must refund over 85 million) and France (40 million), followed in order by Belgium (almost 6 million), Portugal (just over 3 million), Spain (almost 3 million), and with sums lower than one million euros the UK, Germany, Holland, Sweden and Finland. Overall, the major irregularities concern shortcomings in controls, failure to respect payment deadlines and the non-application of sanctions. The farm sectors most hit by the violations are fruit and vegetables (73.59 million), seed crops (8.72 million) and dairy products (6.76 million). Roughly a sixth of the refund (31.22 million Euros) is due to grave irregularities in the procedures for the certification of expenditures and financial auditing.
