EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
I.
As part of the EU’s rural development policy grants are made available to enterprises that process and market agricultural products through a measure called ‘Adding value to agricultural and forestry products’ that aims to improve the competitiveness of agriculture and forestry.
For the current programming period, 2007–13, the EU budget for this measure is some 5,6 billion euro. This financing is complemented by national spending, which brings the total public funding to 9 billion euro.
II.
The Court’s audit examined whether the EU support had been effective and efficient in adding value to agricultural products. In particular, the Court questioned whether the measure was designed and implemented in a way that provides for the efficient funding of projects addressing clearly identified needs and whether the measure is monitored and evaluated in a way that allows its results to be demonstrated.
III.
As is to be expected, the projects mostly improved the financial performance of the companies concerned and a number of the projects audited may result in some added value. This, however, could not be attributed to the design of the measure or the selection procedures used by the Member States. There was a lack of evidence to demonstrate that the companies aided needed a subsidy, or the specific policy objectives that
the subsidy was expected to achieve. The Court concludes that the support has not been systematically directed to projects that effectively and efficiently add value to agricultural products.
