Lhe region of central Italy is involved in a millionaire turnover that is played out on the land, amidst fires and threats. But she remains far from controls
“One day I found a hundred cows grazing on land I had rented. I asked the shepherd for damages but he explained to me that they had appointed him and that I would receive compensation soon.” Adriano Marrama, cereal farmer and racehorse breeder from Vittorito, in the province of L’Aquila, is one of the victims of the illicit system which, even in Abruzzo, exploits the cracks in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to obtain European contributions. His personal story is part of a larger and more complex story, where administrators, regulators and entrepreneurs have not been able to stop those who wanted to take advantage of the mechanism.
The supervisory body (Agea) admitted that it had failed in monitoring. Now he has developed new software
“We have seen millions pass through our region and no one has ever lifted a finger”, explains Marrama with the tone of someone who knows more than he can say. A system that is difficult to undermine because it brings profits to everyone: companies pay the salaries of local shepherds and in the meantime fill their pockets, as highlighted by the research of the professor from the University of L’Aquila Lina Calandra, which already in 2018 had denounced the presence of a network of favors and threats in the region. Added to the academic work are law enforcement operations, such as the one last September called Transumanza, which in addition to Abruzzo involved Puglia, Trentino-Alto Adige, Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio and Campania .
Another investigation conducted in 2017 by the Sulmona carabinieri, whose documents lavialibera obtained, also demonstrates that the illegal system did not even spare the parks. According to the Carabinieri’s reconstruction, they were used abusively by livestock companies that violated regional, national and European regulations. With the new CAP 2023-2027 hopefully something will change, especially in the controls. Also because the Agricultural Payments Agency (Agea) itself admitted that it had had major problems in monitoring the territory.
Grazing mafias, injustice at high altitude
Changed nature
In the background of this story are the mountains of Abruzzo, which through their diversity manage to convey the intricacies of a fraudulent modus operandi stratified and consolidated over time. Nunzio Marcelli, an agricultural entrepreneur from Anversa degli Abruzzi, a town in the province of L’Aquila which has just over 300 inhabitants, is a witness to what is happening. “The serious damage was not having understood that the CAP could be a resource for our territory, which instead has become depopulated. In the meantime, money continues to fill the pockets of companies that have nothing to do with these places. When the big entrepreneurs put tens of thousands of euros on the table of the small municipalities in the hinterland, the municipal administrations can hardly refuse”.
The change in the natural landscape is linked to the increasingly strong presence of companies from other regions, which can obtain land thanks to decoupling, the procedure through which the contributions paid are not paid on the basis of production, but on the basis of property of the farmer and the hectares of land in his possession. “The mechanism is functioning as an income, not as a support”, specifies Marcelli, while Marrama adds that “many agriculture ministers, from Gianni Alemanno, through Giancarlo Galan, Luca Zaia and Maurizio Martina have favored the decoupling. Many say that ” it’s Brussels’ fault”, but in reality it is the State-Regions conference that decides how to apply the CAP on the territory”. Dino Rossi, a farmer from Ofena (Aq) who had agricultural vehicles burned, comments: “Whoever is in government has promised changes. But the politicians pass away, the managers stay”.
The role of trade unions
For farmers to receive money from the European Union they need to fill out and submit an application, with trade associations playing an important intermediary role. “The Agricultural Assistance Centers (CAA) take a commission of around 3 percent – observes Marcelli – and therefore for applications worth millions of euros in subsidies, we are talking about very high figures”.
Calandra: “The mafia is in the pastures”
Since last December, thanks to a decree wanted by the minister Francesco Lollobrigida, the requirements for the CAA that can present and manage applications to obtain community funds effectively exclude small unions, creating a funnel: for the next deadlines, foreseen in May 2024, small associations will only be able to take charge of the management of small practices, while company files could all pass into the hands of Coldiretti.
The relationship with the Caa also proved to be crucial for the group coordinated by Trentino entrepreneurs Mariano and Armando Berasi who, according to the Transumanza investigation, committed a series of crimes including fraud, self-laundering and reuse of illicit proceeds. According to the investigators, one of the suspects would have carried out the directives of the Berasis, as de facto co-administrator of entities including Caa Alpa of L’Aquila and Campobasso and the L’Aquilano Consortium.
Walking around the parks (when it’s prohibited)
This story also includes places designed for the conservation and enhancement of the natural and cultural heritage: the national parks. Lavialibera was able to view a crime report submitted by the Majella National Park Carabinieri Department to the Sulmona prosecutor’s office, dated 2 October 2017. A burning document, which however had no outcome. Which is why we must consider all the protagonists cited innocent until proven guilty. The accusation made by the investigators is of aggravated fraud against the European Union, illegal grazing of livestock and deterioration of habitats of interest to the EU. The names cited are 27, including owners of livestock farms, mayors, heads of municipal technical offices, the director of the Majella national park and the head of the veterinary office of the park, who at the time of the disputed events was also the mayor of Caramanico Spa, in the province of Pescara.
In the territory of the Majella National Park and in the nine municipalities of Pacentro, Sulmona, Pratola Peligna, Pescocostanzo, Ateleta, Caramanico Terme, Sant’Eufemia a Maiella, Palena and Pizzoferrato, eight livestock companies were allegedly granted large municipal funds in an abusive manner, violating regional, national and European countries, as they are wooded areas where grazing is not permitted, or the so-called A areas of integral reserve, characterized by fragile habitats or steep and rocky areas, impracticable for grazing. Not only. The investigations had brought to light numerous grazing permits issued by the park authority and never published in the notice board. In the Morrone mountains alone, in the Abruzzo Apennines, community contributions for pastures amount to more than one million and 200 thousand euros. Figure calculated over the five years of the funds provided for by the Rural Development Plan of the Abruzzo region from 2014 to 2020.
What is community fraud? The insights of lavialibera
What attracted the attention of the Carabinieri were some fires that occurred in the months of July and August 2017 in the Morrone mountains, right above the city of Sulmona, which destroyed a large part of the granted surface area. According to the accusation contained in the document, “there were strong interests in controlling the market of livestock farms operating in Abruzzo and in the Rieti area, capable of generating earnings of the order of several million euros in five years”.
In the race to obtain funds, some groups that “historically control the market” they had entered into conflict: on the one hand some names based in Sant’Eufemia a Maiella (Pe), but with strong connections with the Apulian area; on the other hand, companies based in Rieti and connected to the Latina area and lower Lazio. From the documents it appears that “most of the fires were set with intimidating and retaliatory intent on the orders of the “leaders” of the two contending groups who controlled the entire market through favoritism and extortion”.
Another hypothesis put forward by the carabinieri is that it was the concessionaires themselves who burned the pastures assigned to them, in order to be able to have land in better conditions, starting from 2018, even “citing the cause of force majeure as a reason for justify the impossibility of respecting the conditions set out in the notices […] and receive EU contributions”. Three days after the fires, Confagricoltura asked the Abruzzo Region to pay contributions for those burnt and unusable pastures. “In this way they would have guaranteed large profits without any risk or expense”, continues the document, however, nothing more is known.
Conflicting families went to war to gain control of territories
Inadequate controls
It is Agea, the Agency for agricultural disbursements, that admits having failed in its monitoring work, so much so as to present with great fanfare a new control system costing 12 million euros. During a public talk, entitled Cultivating legality, the manager Cristina D’Annibale admitted: “The reason why we have missed the phenomenon of fraud is precisely the lack of proximity, because Agea currently covers 11 regions which are far away. It is here that phenomena occurred that we were not aware of.” The causes of missing controls are different. First of all, the data could only be entered into the system manually and Agea could not access some databases. Secondly, it was difficult to exchange information between law enforcement agencies, other agencies’ databases and the paying agency.
All our articles on the pasture mafias
With the new system, which will be applied to the 2024 applications, the requests received by the institution, the current accounts where the payments are deposited and the payments themselves will be cross-referenced. An agreement was also stipulated with the Carabinieri and the Financial Police to maximize the control and monitoring work of the territory, as well as to provide an interoperability system with the municipalities and the Police Anti-Crime Directorate.
For a diffused contrast
The government agency’s new software isn’t the only way to stop these scams. According to the farmers interviewed by lavialibera, the return to coupled titles on the one hand could simplify controls through immediate verification; on the other, it would contribute to the repopulation of internal areas. Then there is another, longer path, which should involve local governance. In this sense, an efficient intermunicipal system that develops a regulation for the management of state property could be useful. A table of mayors and local managers to avoid being caught unprepared.
Raising awareness is also the hope of those, like the prefect of L’Aquila Giancarlo Di Vincenzo, he is convinced that “the institutions must be close to the citizens, to allow certain episodes to never happen again”. A virtuous mix made of skills, strategy, love for the public good and respect for nature. Which, ultimately, is the spirit of the CAP.
From lavialibera n° 26
