Ireland will have to pay back €590,000 to the Commission in Brussels for "lack of proper control over the withdrawal of fish".
The crackdown and demand for repayment is part of a move by the Commission, as World Fishing went to press, to claw back €244m from the EU budget 'unduly' spent by Member States. It said this was due to: inadequate control procedures or non-compliance with EU rules on agricultural expenditure.
Tough control
Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said: "European taxpayers' money has to be properly spent...the Commission is not prepared to compromise on this issue and will continue to take a tough stance to stamp out lax controls. We will not hesitate to recover misspent money from the Member States," reports Peter O'Neill.
Ireland is the only country so far highlighted on the fish front by the Commission's anti-fraud unit. Demands for repayment from the other countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK) are mainly for fruit & veg. some livestock and over lax payouts and checks on the way funds were spent.
