European Commission to investigate possible fines over Scottish Government farming payments crisis

The European Commission will investigate reports that the Scottish Government could be fined if they fail to make Basic Payments to farmers on time, it is confirmed today.

Speaking at a meeting of the ECR Rural Economy Policy Group in Brussels, a senior official said the Commission would investigate the situation, which has seen huge delays in delivering hundreds of millions of Common Agricultural Policy payments.

The move follows comments made by former NFUS President Jim Walker, who claimed at the weekend that the EU could impose fines of up to £100 million if deadlines were not met.

During today’s meeting, chaired by Conservative MEP Ian Duncan, NFUS Vice-President Rob Livesey, questioned whether the Scottish Government were in danger of failing to meet their obligation to deliver payments by June 30.

At First Ministers Questions last week Nicola Sturgeon admitted that farmers could have to wait until June for their payments, despite Farming Minister Richard Lochhead promising that a quarter of payments would be delivered in December, with the majority of the remaining payments to be made by the end of January.