Press Release: Commission to recover €414 million of CAP expenditure from Member States

A total of €414m of EU agricultural policy funds unduly spent by Member States has been claimed back by the European Commission on 26 February 2013 under the so-called clearance of accounts procedure.

Member States are responsible for paying out and checking expenditure under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and the Commission is required to ensure that Member States have made correct use of the funds. This money returns to the EU budget because of non-compliance with EU rules or inadequate control procedures on agricultural expenditure.

Formally speaking, because some of these amounts have already been recovered from the Member States the net financial impact of this decision amount to some €393 million.