Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-11-23-Speech-2-594"
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"en.20101123.42.2-594"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, it is good to see you here with us to tonight. Clearly, simplification and stripping out the bureaucracy from the CAP is a key objective of the next reform, because certainly back in Scotland, many farmers are frustrated and angry about the bureaucracy and the disproportionate nature of the penalty system.
Public money has to be spent wisely and properly audited, and we do not dispute that whatsoever, but there is a lack of proportionality in the current penalty system both at Member State level and at farmer level as well. That is something that needs to be addressed in the reform.
In Scotland, farmers are currently being punished for small mistakes with very, very large fines in some instances. Since May, the inspections have been ramped up and swingeing penalties are being handed out. The Scottish Government, I am afraid, blame you, Commissioner, for that particular measure – for the ramping up of the inspections and the penalty systems.
Another explanation, however, might be that the European Commission auditors were due to come and inspect Scotland both in October and last week in November. It may well be that the Scottish Government were panicking slightly and that the huge fines and draconian penalties that have been put in place in the last three or four months are the response to worries that all might not be well when the auditors arrived in Scotland and carried out their inspection.
They have also looked across the water to our colleagues in Northern Ireland – I am sure my colleague, Jim Nicholson, might say one or two words about that – and looked at the fate of the government there which is facing a huge fine for the misinterpretation of eligible lands. That may well lie behind the measures taken in Scotland.
Commissioner, in your wind-up speech, can you clarify if it is indeed you that is behind and is responsible for the new draconian regime in Scotland, and can you confirm when we will know the outcome of the auditors’ inspections that have taken place in October and November of this year?"@en1
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