Brussels, 24/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - Fraud affecting the EU budget remained stable in 2012 compared to 2011, according to the Commission's annual report on the Protection of the EU's Financial Interests. The European anti-fraud office (OLAF) detected 1,231 irregularities involving fraud, slightly more than the previous year. The financial impact of these irregularities, however, amounts to €392.6 million, as opposed to €404 million in 2011.
Although budget revenue fraud decreased between 2011 and 2012, to €77.6 million from €109 million, it increased on the expenditure side: €315 million, €20 million more than in 2011. This increase can almost entirely be explained by two cases of pre-accession fund fraud committed in Romania, worth €38.5 million.
Cohesion policy is the area where most abuse of European funds is committed and accounted for 279 irregularities of fraud worth €199.3 million, followed by the common agricultural policy (204). In 2012, the European regional development fund was most affected, although over the past five years, the European social fund has been subject to most irregularities. The Czech Republic, Germany and Italy accounted for more than half of all irregularities, with 34, 43 and 75 cases committed by them respectively.
In the context of the CAP, 204 cases of fraud were detected. Although the number of irregularities has increased, its financial impact has decreased from €77 million to €68 million. Half of these irregularities involved overshooting quotas and bogus declarations. OLAF explained that this significant increase in the number of regularities flagged up is “exclusively down to the efforts made by a single member state”, Denmark, which accounted for 56 cases alone. OLAF deplores the fact that “significant beneficiaries of EU resources, like Greece, France and Spain, demonstrate a very limited capacity for detecting fraud”.
In 2012, several Commission initiatives sought to tackle fraudulent practices, with the proposal, for example, to set up a European Prosecutor's Office. The report, however, also criticises the approaches adopted by member states, which still remain very diverse. The Commission is highlighting the need to harmonise these approaches, so that fraud can be tackled, “in a similar way throughout the Union”. Progress was also made on the level of sanctions, which are sometimes too low to be a deterrent, and in the time granted to pursue investigations. (LM/transl.fl)