Brussels, 21/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - In plenary on Thursday 21 November, the European Parliament (EP) adopted by 555 votes to 27, with 28 abstentions, a report by Romanian MEP Théodor Dumitru Stolojan (EPP) approving the draft regulation of the EP and Council of Ministers introducing, with a few amendments, the Fiscalis 2020 Programme unveiled by the European Commission, on which the EP is co-legislator. With a budget reduced to €223 million in the compromise deal on the EU's budget (from the initial €234 million), the programme aims to boost cooperation in 2014-2020 between tax authorities started under the previous programme (Fiscalis 2013), in order to combat tax fraud more effectively and prevent double taxation. The programme will finance improvements in IT systems to improve the sharing of information between tax authorities and the flow of information to highlight any irregularities (the programme does not yet cover the automatic exchange of information); exchange of audit and anti-fraud expertise among tax offices; the training of tax officials; multilateral controls among more than one tax office, and more besides. In this sense, it will complement the anti-tax fraud action plan drawn by the Commission, explained Commissioner Semeta during the debate. The changes with regard to the previous programme are: extension of the domain of application to cooperation among tax authorities in EU candidate countries or potential candidate countries, along with other non-EU countries and experts from international organisations; adding a reference to combating double taxation. The EP has kept the distinction between the successors to the Fiscalis 2013 and the Customs 2013 programme that the Commission suggested merging into a single programme, called Fiscus, but with a separate budget for each. The report was adopted with the backing of the main political groupings, the opposition coming mainly from Eurosceptics like the UKIP (of the United Kingdom), the Northern League of Italy and some non-aligned MEPs. (FG/transl.fl)