EU looks to recoup €5 billion from Member States

07 November 2012

The EU will be seeking to recoup about €5 billion from Member States, after the European Court of Auditors says the rules were not followed in schemes worth about 4 per cent of money spent last year.

Kevin Cardiff, the Irish member of the court, said while the error rate for spending was not much greater than in 2010, it was still too much. Mr Cardiff, a former head of the [Irish] Department of Finance, said that at a time when countries were cutting back on spending because of the economic crisis, the EU must be even more careful with its funding.

While many of the errors were found in spending on agriculture and regional policy, some should have been identified by the Member States, he said. One example of this was a farm building that when eventually examined by the auditors was found to be a house, paid for with EU funds.

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