THE Finnish EU Commissioner with responsibility for budgetary affairs, Mr Erkki Liikanen said yesterday it was hoped that legal structures would soon be in place to recover monies disbursed last year in error through the Structural Funds. He was speaking at a press conference in the European Parliament following publication of the Court of Auditors report 1995.
The report disclosed that of the £3.6 billion subject to "substantial error", 42 per cent was through Structural Funds. At present there are no legal structures within that sector allowing for "recoverability".
Mr Liikanen was at pains to point out that what was involved was not fraud, but "substantial error".