A freezing order on assets against four livestock farmers in Italy, suspected of fraud involving EU agricultural funds intended for grazing activities was ordered at the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO).
According to the investigation, the livestock farmers in the southern island of Sicily declared that they had carried out grazing activities on land outside their own properties, in their applications to the Italian Agricultural Payments Agency (AGEA) – responsible for managing Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies.
However, they did not activate the mandatory “grazing code”, an official registration to authorize grazing activities on parcels of land outside a farmer’s main holding, which also triggers required veterinary inspections. It is alleged that they did so in order 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 over €450,000 in EU 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 (Reparto Carabinieri Tutela Agroalimentare di Messina). Several properties, assets and payment entitlements from AGEA were seized, worth around €254,000.
All persons concerned are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is the independent public prosecution office of the European Union. It is responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the EU.
