Fraud perpetrated by Dutch dairy farmers

22.3.2018

Question for written answer E-001755-18
to the Commission
Rule 130
Jean Arthuis (ALDE)

Following the end of milk quotas, the Netherlands have stood out because of a substantial and swift increase in their amount of livestock and dairy production.

The increase in livestock in the Netherlands has been facilitated by the establishment of a scheme providing for derogations from the ‘phosphorus ceilings’ provided for by the Nitrates Directive.

It has recently emerged that fraud has been perpetrated by some Dutch farmers. In declaring calving and attributing the offspring of a heifer to a cow in the same herd, the latter cow became the fictitious mother of twins and the heifer was thus not calculated as being an animal in lactation.

This means that the farmers appeared not to have increased the stock density per hectare on their farms and thus circumvented the exemption threshold for phosphorus emissions. In addition, these primiparas found themselves producing milk in a European market in which there is a milk glut, generating income for these producers.

This fraud brings to light a number of failings with regard to monitoring and control.

1. Can the Commission say what measures it intends to take against the perpetrators of this fraud?

2. Whom will it render liable?

3. Does it intend to stop renewing similar derogation schemes?