“When getting support, farmers must meet certain requirements and the Member States shall ensure compliance with these requirements. Lithuania’s authorities failed to ensure that. We are not saying that farmers did not comply with the requirements, the thing is that Lithuania’s authorities failed to ensure proper checks of compliance with the regulations,” Roger Waite, the Commission’s spokesman for Agriculture and Rural Development, said.
“Of course, each deduction, each refund is a painful thing. It means that mistakes have been made somewhere. We will make efforts, will try to find out the reasons so as to reduce the number of deductions, charges as much as possible in future, will improve the system,” Agriculture Minister Vigilijus Jukna told the news broadcast.
The Commission said in a report that Lithuania would have to pay some money back due to missing defined good agricultural and environmental conditions (GAECs), badly controlled GAECs and deficiencies in the application of sanctions. Moreover, the Commission mentioned weak control system on eligibility of beneficiaries. The Commission did not find any deficiencies in Latvia or Estonia. The Member States affected may appeal against the Commission’s decision.
