The integrated administration and control system is actually the central plank of our present agriculture policy.

Those are the key points for farmers to remember when they get their Integrated Administration and Control System forms later this week.

Direct payments to the producer will continue to be excluded from scrutiny, as will those payments covered by the integrated administration and control system.

Bulgaria needs to establish the integrated administration and control system in agriculture in order to implement the provisions and funding of the common agricultural policy.

Similarly, setting up the integrated administration and control system was a major technical and administrative task involving considerable investment and administrative reorganization.

The date of April 2002 is needed in order at last to guarantee the proper operation of the integrated administration and control system in all the Member States.

As far as I am aware, the IACS (integrated administration and control system) has not yet become operational in any of the new Member States.

The most striking feature of current agricultural policy is that it is no longer based on price support, but rather on income support - the integrated administration and control system.

SPS is managed under IACS (Integrated Administration and Control System), the EC (European Community) system for administering schemes to prevent fraud.

Therefore, in the first stage of the establishment of this integrated administration and control system, it would be sufficient to regulate the conditions for delivering the information mentioned and the need for the Commission to store it.

Although I cannot agree to all the amendments tabled by the committees, I would like to make it clear that the Commission supports the committees' basic view that the integrated administration and control system needs to be further strengthened.

The system used to check much expenditure under the common agricultural policy – the integrated administration and control system (IACS) – is considered an effective control system in limiting the risk of irregular expenditure, when properly applied.

Would it be fair to say, as many people in Poland say, that in some cases at least part of the problem concerning the integrated administration and control system lies with Brussels delaying the spending on the final requirements for the system?

The Council emphasises in its conclusions that numerous efforts have already been made to improve sound financial management: the introduction of internal audits, stricter requirements regarding the accountability of the Commission's accounting officer and implementation of the integrated administration and control system, to name just a few.

Mr President, I would also like to support the report presented by Mr Casaca on the European Commission proposal on the Integrated administration and control system for Community aid schemes, which was unanimously adopted by the Committee on Budgetary Control.

First, as regards the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) in Greece and agricultural subsidies, a very clear action plan has now been agreed with Greece in order to ensure proper implementation of the IACS in that country.

This applies primarily to expenditure under the common agricultural policy that is not subject to the integrated administration and control system - IACS for short - and to expenditure on structural measures and internal policies and to a considerable proportion of expenditure on external actions.

This was the aim of the report produced by my colleague, Terry Wynn, and adopted by Parliament by a large majority; it is also the aim of the integrated administration and control system announced by the European Commission and Commission Vice-President, Siim Kallas.