So, it's not just the Greeks misusing funds ey (Uk, the Netherlands, Belgium and others too)

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Member states fined over 54 mn euro for misspent CAP funds
By Ed Bray | Thursday 16 February 2012

The European Commission has called on member states to recover some €54.3 million in EU agricultural funds that have been misspent, with the UK, the Netherlands and Italy facing the highest fines. In an announcement, on 16 February, the Commission said Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funds worth some €115.2 million had been unduly spent by member states, but they will have to recover less than half this amount when previous funding corrections are factored in.

The UK will have to pay back almost €30 million to the Commission for failing to enforce EU environmental rules for farmers in the period between 2007 and 2010. A similar fine of €14.5 million was handed out to the Dutch authorities for the same reason. Italy was fined €21.5 million for poor controls on mills and compatibility of yields for olive oil during the period between 2005 and 2006. Meanwhile, Lithuania was hit by a fine of just over €8.5 million for weaknesses in its mapping of land areas and on-the-spot checks. Greece received some welcome news that the Commission would reimburse Athens to the tune of €34.5 million, after it mistakenly fined Athens for CAP funding errors.

Commission officials said the decision followed a ruling by the EU Court of Justice, on 9 September 2011, which partially annulled fines imposed in 2005 over irregularities in EU payments to Greek livestock and fruit farmers.

Member states are responsible for managing the majority of CAP payments through their paying agencies. Still, the EU executive carries out over 100 audits per year to oversee member state controls. The average correction rate per financial year has been 1.5%. The money returned will be reclaimed as part of the EU budget.

http://www.europolitics.info/sectori...326364-11.html

Especially the fact that the UK has to repay a rather large amount is amusing to me as the EU is usually a target for them and a scapegoat. Bashing the EU all the time and then misusing the funds they receive from them, typical UK Hypocrisy I wonder how Nigel Farage is going to spin this

[General Brittanicus]

http://www.europolitics.info/sectori...326364-11.html

Especially the fact that the UK has to repay a rather large amount is amusing to me as the EU is usually a target for them and a scapegoat. Bashing the EU all the time and then misusing the funds they receive from them, typical UK Hypocrisy I wonder how Nigel Farage is going to spin this

Firstly, how is this hypocrisy from the UK? - Have we been complaining about people not enforcing EU environmental laws in their own countries?

And secondly "misusing the funds they recieve from them" . I think you mean misusing (if you want to call it that - i wouldn't, but thats a matter of perspective i suppose) their own funds which they gave to the EU and then got a tiny portion of back, the British government can do whatever it damn well pleases with its own money. Also if they were going to fine us couldn't they have made it a bit larger - we already pay €30 million to the EU every 3 days or so, so it seems kind of pointless to ask for such a small amount.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

And secondly "misusing the funds they recieve from them" . I think you mean misusing (if you want to call it that - i wouldn't, but thats a matter of perspective i suppose) their own funds which they gave to the EU and then got a tiny portion of back, the British government can do whatever it damn well pleases with its own money.

So if I commit social welfare fraud it's ok because I'm a millionaire and I pay so much tax anyway? It's actually worse because I am so well off. Eastern Europe needs money a lot more than the UK does.

If the UK doesn't like it they are free to leave.

Besides, the CAP needs to go. It's responsible for a sick amount of third world poverty and economic impairment of Europe.

[alhoon]

So if I commit social welfare fraud it's ok because I'm a millionaire and I pay so much tax anyway? It's actually worse because I am so well off. Eastern Europe needs money a lot more than the UK does.

If the UK doesn't like it they are free to leave.

That.

[DannyTh3Man]

I'd be damn proud of the UK if they stood up to the European Commission on these charges. And Irelandeb, I'm sure many Brits would love to leave, as the EU has caused a drain on their own resources and an immigration nightmare.

[justicar5]

I'd be damn proud of the UK if they stood up to the European Commission on these charges. And Irelandeb, I'm sure many Brits would love to leave, as the EU has caused a drain on their own resources and an immigration nightmare.

at least according to the Daily Heil

[DannyTh3Man]

at least according to the Daily Heil

Ah yes, you know the UK does encounter many benefits as a member of the EU.
Unified Defense (You know, something that it could handle on its own? And if hit the fan the Americans would cross the Atlantic quicker than the EU to cross the Channel)
Unified Currency (Oh wait, they were smart enough to keep out of that)
Trade (That thing that existed between European States way before the EU)
Freedom to live anywhere (While it does make it easy for retirees to live on the Mediterranean, there are much more people flooding into Britain than leaving)
Ease of government (Why make your own decisions when an unelected council can tell you what you can and can not do)

[removeduser_4536284751384]

Ease of government (Why make your own decisions when an unelected council can tell you what you can and can not do)

The European council is directly elected. The European parliament is directly elected. The European commission is appointed by the democratically elected council and democratically elected parliament. Every single body of the EU is democratically chosen regardless of what Euromysticism believes.

The goal of the EU is to create a single state in Europe. The UK is voluntarily a member of the EU.

I'm sure there are states of the USA that would benefit by leaving.

[DannyTh3Man]

The European council is directly elected. The European parliament is directly elected. The European commission is appointed by the democratically elected council and democratically elected parliament. Every single body of the EU is democratically chosen regardless of what Euromysticism believes.

The goal of the EU is to create a single state in Europe. The UK is voluntarily a member of the EU.

I'm sure there are states of the USA that would benefit by leaving.

There is a difference between American States under the Federal Government and entire Nations being told what to do by an extra national power
Who is an Italian from Italy to tell an Irishman how to live

[Vanoi]

I'm sure there are states of the USA that would benefit by leaving.

Not really. Even the biggest states in the US with sizable populations still rely on the US to operate. That and the US would never allow it.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

I'd be damn proud of the UK if they stood up to the European Commission on these charges.

Stood up how and why?

Also, they're just paying back money for beaucratic incompetence.

And Irelandeb, I'm sure many Brits would love to leave, as the EU has caused a drain on their own resources and an immigration nightmare.

Which the UK voluntarily choose to accept. Why is acceptable for money to flow from Scotland to England but not from the UK to other EU countries?

[Thorn777]

^Id love that for real.

[DannyTh3Man]

The UK is reverent on the world stage without the EU

As is France and Germany

[removeduser_4536284751384]

The UK is reverent on the world stage without the EU

It has less than a per cent of the world's population and 3.5% of the world's GDP, so no it isn't. China is bigger than the UK and if it doesn't like what the UK wants in a trade deal it can simply ignore it and the UK will be hurt more than it. With the EU the relationship is the other way around. And the UK recognises this, which is why it is a member of the EU and no British Charles De Gaul has emerged.

Churchill's idea of a "build[ing] a kind of United States of Europe" idea wasn't even from necessity, but simple emotionally-based European identity. The UK was a lot more powerful in his day and wouldn't need an EU as much.

As is France and Germany

They are not for the same reasons. That's why they created the EU in the first place.

[Ahlerich]

The UK is reverent on the world stage without the EU

As is France and Germany

thats wrong. the eu´s main significance is that single european countries will lose more and more significance this century. at the end of the century no single european countr will be reverent on the world stage anymore.

single eu countries alone will be dependent on chinese, american, russian and maybe indian policy this century if the eu fails.

its not that aparent to europeans because in the past centuries it was the other way around. however it is turning and a united eu is the only chance for significance for europes future.

however thats acually off topic here.

[Erebus Pasha]

http://www.europolitics.info/sectori...326364-11.html

Especially the fact that the UK has to repay a rather large amount is amusing to me as the EU is usually a target for them and a scapegoat. Bashing the EU all the time and then misusing the funds they receive from them, typical UK Hypocrisy I wonder how Nigel Farage is going to spin this

One wonders why you've singled out the UK for criticism when the Netherlands, Italy and Lithuania have also been hit with fines. Or is again another case of the pro-EU crowd on here looking for an easy target? If anything it's Britain that is seen as the scapegoat for EU Federalists as we see here.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

One wonders why you've singled out the UK for criticism when the Netherlands, Italy and Lithuania have also been hit with fines. If anything it's Britain that is seen as the scapegoat for EU Federalists as we see here.

It's because the UK is so Euroskeptic.

[Condottiere 40K]

They'd have a better chance at it now, then one and a half centuries ago.

[Vítor Gaspar]

Oh, you don't say it's not only about the Greeks and the Iberians...

[Thorn777]

@ze de pipo

Greeks and the Iberians...and the English