Author: Maria Esther Muñiz Espada
Committee: Agricultural and environmental fraud
Date: 4/11/2023
The new CAP 2023 to 2027 moves from being a policy based on the description of requirements to be met by the final beneficiaries of support to being a policy geared to achieving concrete results, linked to three general objectives: (a) to promote a smart, competitive, resilient and diversified agricultural sector that ensures long-term food security; (b) to support and strengthen environmental protection, including biodiversity, and climate action and contribute to achieving the Union’s environmental and climate objectives, including commitments under the Paris Agreement; (c) strengthening the socioeconomic fabric of rural areas.
These general objectives are further broken down into nine specific objectives, based on the three pillars of sustainability and complemented by a common cross-cutting objective to modernise the agricultural sector through knowledge, innovation and digitisation in rural areas. The CAP is a highly efficient investment from the EU’s budget, it means of the EU budget 33,2%. Spain has taken advantage from the CAP resources to consolidate a key sector for the country economy. (web Agricultural Ministry)
The control of this budget has detected in Spain in September 2023 a criminal network, as reported in the press, of a fraud of agricultural subsidies of the CAP worth 3 million euros in Cordoba, Seville, Ecija and Jerez de la Frontera. They made false contracts of transfer of use of plots of land to persons while the owners of these lands were unaware of the fraudulent use to obtain these subsidies. The criminals created a complex criminal network involving several companies. Now, in November 2023 several people in the region of Castilla y Leon are now under investigation for fraud of EU subsidies, subsidies linked to animal health and welfare. These people are allegedly falsifying the conditions necessary to obtain these CAP subsidies to the value of one million euros. The farmers investigated were applying for aid from the pack by pretending to graze in different areas.
Committee: Agricultural and environmental fraud
Facing and contrasting frauds that occur in the Common Agricultural Policy field.
Chair: Prof. Maria Esther Muñiz Espada
Vice chair: Samuel Bolis