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The suspension of EU funds for agriculture / Hohmann: There is no final report yet, but there have definitely been violations

2023-08-17 22:55:07Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The suspension of EU funds for agriculture / Hohmann: There is no final report
Christiane Hohmann, ambassador of the European Union

Although the investigation has not been fully completed, the European Commission's preliminary findings indicate that there is definitely a problem with the implementation of the IPARD II program.

This is what Christiane Hohmann, the ambassador of the European Union, stated in an interview for Klan television, when she was asked about the suspension of agricultural funds for Albania after an investigation into corruption in the implementation of IPARD II.

She emphasized that they still do not have a final report, but nevertheless stated that there was something that did not work properly in the use of these funds.

"We are in the middle of a process where we had people who actually complained about the mismanagement of funds by the fund management agency IPARD, so the Brussels institution called OLAF, which tracks fraud, looked into the matter and they did an investigation where they informed the European Commission about their preliminary findings", she declared while adding that this does not mean that agriculture and farmers are not doing a good job.

"At this moment we stop everything before we get the final report. Undoubtedly, there was something that did not work properly in the use of funds, but on the other hand, it is also the honest work of farmers.

So I think we have to distinguish between what we see can be done on the ground and what happened, and we have to get to the bottom of it. But this does not mean that there is no more assistance available, we will clarify everything and then continue", she stated during the interview.

The IPARD program is the financial support for agriculture, which the European Union dedicates to countries in the accession process as help to further develop the agricultural sector. IPARD was approved by decision of the European Commission on July 20, 2015.

Albania took part in the second call of this IPARD II program, in 2018 and the disbursement started in 2021. So far, including partially funds from IPARD III that started this year, Albania has received 112 million euros in total.

In Albania, these funds and applications are managed by the Agency for Agriculture and Rural Development, which also manages national farmer financing schemes. For Albania, IPARD would initially cover investments in agriculture and crops, then in livestock, agro-tourism and aquaculture.


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