2023-09-06 20:00:08
The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) lied to the European Commission in 2018 regarding the scale of fraud with agricultural plots in the Netherlands, with farmers wrongly applying for European subsidies for land that does not belong to them. The ministry knew this was widespread, but denied this to the European Commission. As a result, a more extensive investigation and recovery of subsidies by Brussels probably did not occur. This is according to an internal email exchange the Platform Investico for Fidelity , the Green Amsterdammer and other newspapers thanks to an appeal to the Open Government Act (Woo).
Reported in 2017 Fidelity that farmers added roadsides and green areas from the Gelderland municipality of Berkelland to their land without permission and wrongly received European subsidies and ‘manure space’ for this. The amount of subsidies and amount of manure that farmers are allowed to spread on their land depends on the size of their own agricultural land that they register with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). Farmers may only register other people’s land if the owner of the land gives explicit permission to do so. The farmers in Berkelland did not have that permission.
Internal emails from the ministry now show that the European Commission discovered this form of fraud in the Netherlands in the same year. The Commission therefore requested, and because of the reporting Fidelityfor a guarantee that the subsidies are provided lawfully in the Netherlands and threatened with recovery.
‘No insight into the scale of this problem’
The ministry had to answer to the European Commission in May 2018 regarding the possible fraud. In that conversation, LNV officials tried to present the problem as smaller than it actually was. “The Dutch authorities have replied that they are not aware of any cases from other municipalities where this problem also occurs,” the conversation report reads. Moreover, the Dutch delegation said that the extent of the problem in Berkelland was not known.
However, the published documents show that the ministry had been extensively informed regarding this months earlier. The municipality of Berkelland told the ministry in February 2018 that it had already mapped ninety hectares of occupied roadsides and larger plots. Moreover, the municipality of Hof van Twente and the municipality of Deventer have also already established this form of fraud.
‘Don’t use the word fraud!’
In an email to Berkelland, a ministry official stated that he was ‘not surprised’ that ‘the fraud problem’ occurred in more municipalities. However, officials omitted this information in communications to the press, the House of Representatives and the European Commission. ‘We must downgrade as much as possible here, also in view of the derogation discussion that is ongoing with the European Commission,’ they warned each other. And: ‘Please don’t use the word fraud!’
The unlawful registration of pieces of land, also known as ‘roadside fraud’, is possible because RVO and LNV do not check whether there is permission from the land owner. Even following the European Commission approached the ministry, the ministry refused. ‘To be able to determine that with certainty, you would have to check everything. We obviously want to stay far away from that,” a ministry official wrote.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality said in a response that its answers to the European Commission would not contradict the report from the municipality of Berkelland, because the authorities that Berkelland referred to had not yet reported to the ministry at that time. LNV cannot currently verify whether they have contacted the relevant authorities themselves. Moreover, the ministry is backtracking on previous statements regarding the ‘fraud problem’ in the municipality of Berkelland and now says that there was a ‘toleration situation’.
The European Commission said in response to questions that it was not yet aware of Berkelland’s email. She emphasizes that she takes the matter seriously and will ask the Dutch authorities for more information.
In association with the Groene Amsterdammer, Tubantia, De Gelderlander, de Stentor and the investigative editorial staff of the Brabant newspapers (Eindhovens Dagblad, Brabants Dagblad in BN DeStem).
Platform Investico, in collaboration with Trouw and De Groene Amsterdammer, among others, will soon publish an extensive study into the extent of unlawful registration of land in the rest of the Netherlands. Do you have any tips or experiences you would like to share? Email us at redactie@platform-investico.nl
This publication was made possible with the support of the Special Journalistic Projects Fund
Also read:
Fraud on the roadside
It seems convenient and innocent: a farmer who mows the roadside. But the Gelderland municipality of Berkelland is taking action once morest it, because it damages nature. Moreover, farmers commit fraud.
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