The EU Commission has reclaimed €335 million (£283m) from the Member States in misspent CAP funds.

A total of €335 million (£283m) of EU agricultural policy funds, which the Commission has decided was unduly spent by Member States, was claimed back on Thursday, under the clearance of accounts procedure. The decisions over misspending are made based on audits taken each year.

The Commission said on Thursday that, because some of the money claimed back has already been recovered from the Member States, the actual financial total of its decision comes to €304 million (£256m). This money returns to the EU budget because of non-compliance with EU rules or inadequate control procedures on agricultural expenditure.

Main financial corrections

Under this latest decision, funds will be recovered from 15 Member States: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Latvia, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden. The most significant individual corrections are:

• € 141.8 million (financial impact¹ : €141.5 million) charged to France for weaknesses related to cross-compliance
• € 78.8 million (financial impact1 : €66.6 million) charged to Greece for weaknesses related to deficiencies in allocation of entitlements
• € 24.3 million (financial impact1 : €24.1 million) charged to the Netherlands for weakness in functioning of LPIS, in on-the-spot checks and in calculation of payments and sanctions
• € 22.2 million (financial impact1 : €21.0 million) charged to Greece for weaknesses related to cross-compliance
• € 17.7 million (financial impact1 : €10.9 million) charged to France for weaknesses related to the recognition of producers organisations of fruit and vegetables.

Following the European Court judgement (T-2/11) against a previous Commission decision, Portugal will be reimbursed €0.5 million.