Italy: EU agricultural-funds fraud worth 450,000 euros prompts EPPO to order asset seizures

Brussels – A 450,000 euro fraud targeting EU agricultural funds earmarked for grazing activities is at the center of charges against four Italian livestock farmers, prompting the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Palermo to order the freezing of their assets. According to the investigation, the livestock farmers declared that they had carried out grazing activities on land outside their own properties in their applications to the Italian Agricultural Payments Agency (AGEA), which manages Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies. However, they did not activate the mandatory ‘grazing code’, an official registration that authorises grazing activities on parcels of land outside the farmer’s main holding and also triggers required veterinary inspections.

 The European Public Prosecutor’s Office believes that the ‘grazing code’ was not activated “to deliberately avoid veterinary controls on livestock movements, in breach of the regulatory conditions for receiving public subsidies.” In this manner, the suspects are believed to have “unduly” obtained the agricultural funds.

At the request of the EPPO, the judge for preliminary investigations of the Court of Catania issued a freezing order for the sums unduly received, which was executed on Monday by the Carabinieri Agri-food Protection Department of Messina. Several properties, assets, and payment entitlements from AGEA were seized, worth around 254,000 euros.