§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the estimated financial loss caused by fraud within each EU state, in respect of the Common Agricultural Policy. [21887]
§ Mr. RookerUndetected fraud cannot, by definition, be measured and, for this reason, neither the Commission nor the European Court of Auditors has provided an492W estimate of the level of fraud within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Member states are, however, required to report detected CAP irregularities over 4,000 ecu (1996 = £3,395) to the Commission. In this context, the definition of irregularity includes all overclaims, negligence or fraud. In 1996, member states reported 1944 cases of irregularity valued at £169 million—0.5 per cent. of the CAP budget of £32.5 billion. A breakdown by Member State was shown in the Commission's Annual Report: "Protecting the Community's Financial Interests: The fight against fraud" and is provided in the table:
EAGGF—Guarantee expenditure irregularities communicated in 1996 (Regulation (EEC) 595/91) Member state Number of cases Amounts in ECU Amount in £1 Belgium 22 2,439,279 2,025,968 Denmark 40 553,498 459,713 Germany 479 25,504,762 21,183,235 Greece 196 1,361,106 1,130,480 Spain 122 16,487,337 13,693,723 France 76 5,096,471 4,232,925 Ireland 30 7,383,760 6,132,656 Italy 476 123,503,793 102,577,310 Luxembourg 0 0 0 Netherlands 128 10,130,519 8,414,004 Austria 14 0 0 Portugal 53 7,045,267 5,851,517 Finland 5 106,969 88,844 Sweden 58 21,390 17,765 United Kingdom 245 4,157,736 3,453,249 Totals 1,944 203,791,887 169,261,389 1 Exchange rate of 1 ECU = £0.83056.