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The European Court of Auditors (ECA) is to scrutinise spending by the EU to counteract disturbances in the dairy market between 2014 and 2017.
In total, some €740m was spent and the auditors want to assess if the measures involved were properly designed and adequately countered the effects of the disturbances.
As part of its work, audit visits will be made to Ireland, France, Italy and Finland to see how the measures were put into practise.
In 2015, milk prices across the EU dropped by some 10c/l to around 30c/l. The Commission cited worldwide supply-demand balance and a ban by Russia on the import of agricultural goods from the EU as the cause.
Ireland
Of the funding made available, Ireland availed of €13.7m for the dairy and livestock sectors to deal with the effects of the Russian ban. It also received a further €11.1m from a solidarity package which included private storage aid.
“Milk producers were hit by a significant drop in their revenues,” said Nikolaos Milionis of the ECA, who is leading the audit.
“We will analyse whether the EU budget was well spent to help them overcome the crisis and whether the Commission is prepared for future market disturbances.”
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