Margarida Vasconcelos: The European Court of Auditors has slammed the Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS)

The European Court of Auditors published yesterday its first special report on income support paid to farmers in the new EU member states. The European Court of Auditors has slammed the Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS), which amounted 5 billion euro in 2011, intended to support farmers’ income in 10 EU Member States. This is another ECA’s report that shows the EU budget wastes millions of taxpayer’s money.

The Court reached the conclusion that “the implementation of the scheme resulted in a number of questionable features.” Namely, the Court noted the inadequacy of the definition of the scheme beneficiaries has allowed payments to be made to people not engaged in agriculture activity such as real estate companies, airports, hunting associations, fishing and ski clubs, and, in some member states, to public entities managing state land but not otherwise involved in farming.

Moreover, according to ECA, the Member States have not reliably determined the total agricultural area in relation to which SAPS should be paid, which has affected the amount of aid per hectare nevertheless it was accepted by the Commission. The report also points out that “aid was paid for parcels where no agricultural activity was carried out.”

The audit has therefore showed that “There is an inherent contradiction in the design of SAPS aid: it is, on the one hand, intended to support the individual income of farmers, but on the other hand, the aid is distributed to farms based on the area of parcels of land at their disposal.”

The Court also noted that the main beneficiaries of the SAPS were large farms.

Hence, the Court concluded, “The distribution of income aid to farmers in new Member States should be reconsidered”. The Court particularly stressed, “support to farmers’ income should be directed to the active farmer who conducts concrete and regular agricultural activities and should exclude public entities.”

The Court recommended the European Commission to “address the structural weaknesses in the farm sector and actively support the Member States and more closely monitor their preparations for the introduction of a future entitlement-based scheme.” Nevertheless, the Court noted the Commission’s proposals for CAP reform only partly addressed its recommendations.