Italy has paid €2.3bn to the European Commission after exceeding its national quota for nearly 15 years.

However, a fine of €1.34bn remains outstanding despite Brussels repeatedly asking the Italian authorities to retrieve the money.

“[They have] clearly not taken the appropriate measures to effectively recover the levy payable from the individual producers/dairies”, said a statement from the European Commission.

This is the third and final step of the infringement process.