Monday, 15th December 2008
Scots Tory MEP welcomes EU’s firm stance on Single Payments fiasco
Scots Tory MEP, Struan Stevenson has welcomed the European Commission’s firm stance with the British Government following the Single Farm Payments fiasco in 2005.
Last week, the European Commission fined Britain £74.5 million for failing to meet the EU’s statutory deadline for getting subsidy cheques to farmers in England and Wales. The Rural Payments Agency was dogged by late payments and administrative errors in 2005 which caused misery to farmers across the country.
Speaking from Brussels, Struan Stevenson said:
“Once again our government’s incompetence has caused British farmers and British taxpayers to lose out. Our farmers have it tough enough without the added disruption of late payments from this ham-fisted Government. The scale of the fine reinforces the seriousness with which the EU views such payment deadlines within the agriculture industry. This should be seen as a warning for the future and perhaps DEFRA should take note of the system for making single farm payments which we adopted in Scotland and which has been much more successful.”
