WRITTEN QUESTION E-3559/01

by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(8 January 2002)

Subject: Performance of the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) in Greece

The Court of Auditors' Special Report 4/2001(1) states that IACS has not been implemented in Greece (point 64 of the Report) and that the basic elements of the IACS have been implemented in all Member States, with the exception of Greece (point 74 of the Commission's reply), while Table 4 shows that the Commission identified weaknesses in all the basic controls on area and livestock aid. Furthermore, the Panhellenic Confederation of Unions of Agricultural Cooperatives which undertook the IACS has alleged (Communication of 2.8.2001) that the Ministry of Agriculture will be unable to meet payments of aid to producers this year owing to delays in signing the relevant agreement.

Given that most of the aid is now paid through the IACS, will the Commission say:

1. What are the consequences for Greece, producers and the protection of the Community's financial interests of failing to implement the IACS?

2. What steps has the Commission taken to oblige Greece to implement the IACS?

3. Given the sharp protests by farmers about delays, omissions and faulty entries, how does it judge the performance of the IACS today in the olive oil, cotton and stockbreeding sectors?

(1) OJ C 214, 31.7.2001, p. 1.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(7 February 2002)

The Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) facilitates the efficient and effective disbursement and control of Community expenditure by the Member States. The Commission views non-implementation of IACS extremely seriously.

In response to the Honourable Member's questions, the Commission would state the following:

1. Greece's non-implementation of IACS means that it is unable to administer and control expenditure in compliance with governing legislation, that its administrative and control procedures are unnecessarily burdensome and ineffective and hence that it is unable to properly control expenditure declared to the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF). Consequently, as for all Member States, the Commission's services responsible for the audit of agricultural expenditure follow very closely the IACS situation in Greece and refuse where appropriate Community financing in the context of its clearance of accounts procedure (Art 7 (4) b of Council Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 of 17 May 1999 on the financing of the common agricultural policy(1)). Any amounts of refused Community financing are thus charged to the national budget.

For Greek producers, the above-outlined deficiencies entail a heavier administrative burden than would otherwise be the case, and sometimes involve delays in the payments to which they are entitled. Furthermore, given that many aids are subject to individual, regional and national quotas or ceilings, the inadequacy of controls results in the disbursement of funds to ineligible persons, thereby depriving rightful beneficiaries of their legitimate share of available aid.

In these circumstances, the IACS situation in Greece clearly fails to properly safeguard the Community's economic interests.

2. As well as conducting regular on-the-spot audit missions to determine Greece's compliance with governing Common agricultural policy (CAP) legislation, which have often led to the financial consequences outlined above, the Commission has instigated an infringement procedure for Greece's failure to introduce IACS by the given deadline.

3. The areas cultivated with cotton must be declared under the IACS according to Article 9 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1591/2001 of 2 August 2001 laying down detailed rules for applying the cotton aid scheme(2). Member States have to check in the field 5 % of those declarations and, where applicable, penalise infringements by producers.

The IACS does not provide for olive groves, which should be registered in a tailor made equivalent system called the olive cultivation geographic information system (GIS). The IACS and the olive cultivation GIS should be connected but neither of these systems exists fully in Greece at present. Therefore Greece, for the olive oil sector, has to carry out on-the-spot inspections of 10 % of all crop declarations.

As concerns Community aids for animals, the most recent on-the-spot audit mission conducted by the Commission services in Greece established that the required system of Identification and Registration for bovines is still only in its pilot stage, and so is already several years behind its due date for completion. Likewise, for sheep and goats, the flock movement registers to be kept by producers are still not effectively implemented or monitored. Those parts of the systems already put in place are not considered capable of serving as proper administrative and control tools as intended.

(1) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.

(2) OJ L 210, 3.8.2001.