Monitoring European aid EU anti-fraud office warns of difficulties in preventing abuses because 5 countries refuse to use a common database.

The disbursement of European aid for the recovery of the crisis caused by the coronavirus within the Next Generation EU fund has taken its first step on Wednesday with the approval of the recovery plans of Portugal and Spain, which define the objectives and measures to which Community funding will be allocated between 2021 and 2026.

However, the implementation of European aid still faces several difficulties. Thus, the heads of State and Government of the European Union will still have to give their approval to the recovery plans of each of the 27, in addition to the difficulties denounced by OLAF, the EU anti-fraud office, for several member states to adhere to the Community financial control systems.

Monitoring European aid EU anti-fraud office warns

In particular, the director of OLAF, the Finn Ville Itala, assured the Financial Times that the EU faces a "great risk" of possible abuses in the management of the European recovery funds, amounting to 800,000 million euros. "It is so much money that prevention is important, we see that it is a great risk, that is clear, because we do not have the same possibilities to track the flows of money and information and to find the beneficiaries," he added.

Monitoring European aid EU anti-fraud office warns: Itala has criticized that Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Poland and Cyprus have refused to use the Community database Arachne for monitoring the disbursement of European aid, given that these countries have their own systems, while the other 22 EU member states have agreed and are expected to use it voluntarily, given that European regulations do not require it, according to the financial newspaper.

The director of OLAF stressed the importance of supervision at both state and Community level to prevent abuse or waste in the disbursement of European aid, stressing that the lack of a common database for the 27 will make it very difficult for them to control in which hands the recovery funds end up. "We can do it, but it is much more complex and involves much more work without the IT tools to track the final beneficiaries," he added.

Monitoring European aid EU anti-fraud office warns

However, Brussels has announced the implementation of new control mechanisms that can be used to provide transparency in the expenditure of European aid and prevent possible abuses, and to unravel previous conflicts of interest. In addition, the 27 have been required to put in place state systems that collect and control the beneficiaries of recovery funds.

In fact, the European authorities have been warning for months that member states must put in place stricter expenditure control mechanisms, ensuring that they will stop the disbursement of Community aid instalments to those countries that do not meet the objectives included in their national recovery plan, as a way to ensure a responsible use of EU emergency funding.

Monitoring European aid EU anti-fraud office warns

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Ikea furniture and almost half a million euros in batamantas: what is still trapped in the Ever Given 2 months after being peeled off the Suez Canal

Ikea and Chinese technology manufacturer Lenovo are among the companies with products that are still stuck aboard the Ever Given, the freight ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March, CNN has reported.

But there are not only large companies among those affected by a delay in the delivery of stocks that already lasts 3 months. Jack Griffiths, co-founder of Snuggy, the small British retailer who popularized the batamanta, has confessed to the American chain that he feels "completely helpless and abandoned".

The Egyptian authorities seized the ship in the Great Bitter Lake, a wider part of the canal, as the long compensation battle continues, in which almost 500 million euros are at stake, between the ship's owner, the Japanese company Shoei Kisen Kaisha, and the Suez Canal Authority (SCA).

Griffiths has pointed out to CNN that it has "batamantas worth more than 450,000 euros on board the Ever Given". A critical situation for the company, which only makes 2 wholesale orders a year, so the delay is causing cash flow problems.

"We have not been informed of anything, we are completely helpless and abandoned. I wish we were involved or just to be kept up to date, but we are not, "Griffiths complained to CNN microphones, from where he added that" it is really not the best situation and this is an obstacle that most new companies will have very difficult to overcome."

Ikea has claimed that it has some of its products in the Ever Given, although it did not give more details about it. Lenovo, for its part, has confirmed to the aforementioned chain of the hand of a spokesman that it also maintains its stock in the container ship and that they are "exploring ways to recover the merchandise".

Batamanta boosters, IKEA or Lenovo are not the only ones affected. For example, the British bicycle manufacturer Pearson 1860 has also assured the American channel that they have trapped in the ship products worth 100,000 dollars (more than 80,000 euros). "We don't have much hope of getting our stock back this year," said company director Will Pearson.

The situation of companies that still have their cargo on the ship could worsen, as they could be forced to pay the SCA for damages, according to a legal principle whereby they would have to share the costs of a failed sea voyage.

In March, Ever Given ran aground for six days in Egypt's Suez Canal, on what is the main shipping route linking Europe to Asia, after being surprised by a sandstorm. The event caused a delay in the trips of another 400 vessels, until at the end of March, the SCA commissioned the Dutch company Boskalis to clear the 220,000-ton vessel, successfully.