The European Commission declared Monday it has "zero tolerance for fraud" after the New York Times alleged the gigantic EU agriculture budget shores up political corruption in eastern member states.
The Commission has "very clear rules for how funds should be managed" and "takes any allegation of misuse very seriously," spokesman Daniel Rosario insisted.
Spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said the EU anti-fraud office, OLAF, looks into such allegations and added that the main responsibility for correct spending of the budget falls on member state governments.
"We are not here to replace national governments," she said. "We cannot and will not do the work for them."