EU ‘insignificant’ sum in misspent agricultural aid

Malta is one of 18 member states asked by the European Commission to hand back some of the funds allocated for agricultural purposes.

Of the total €214.6 million misspent farm aid the EU will be clawing back from its member states, Malta’s share amounts to €20,000.

Following a financial audit on how the funds were spent, the Commission found that Malta had “overshot its financial ceilings”.

An EU official said the amount of money Malta owed was “insignificant” and merely the result of genuine mistakes by Maltese officials when calculating certain direct aids for farmers.

“These things happen all the time... and we are very rigid in our controls. In reality, Malta will not have to return any money to Brussels but the amount will be deducted from future agriculture allocations.”

Malta administers two EU funds with regard to agriculture.

For the seven-year financial period (2007-2013), Malta was allocated almost €114 million to be spent under the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development and the European Agriculture Guarantee Fund.

The European Commissioner for Agriculture, Mariann Fischer Boel said the Commission was keeping up the pressure to ensure the best possible controls over how the money was spent.