Brussels, 10/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 10 June, the European Parliament invited the European Commission to facilitate the negotiations between the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and its Supervisory Committee (SC) by drawing up an action plan by 31 December 2015 with a view to amending the Working Arrangements to create a working environment in which the SC can fulfil its mandate.
Basically, the EP wants the European Commission to take measures to improve the ability of the OLAF Supervisory Committee to monitor OLAF's independence.
Adopting by 448 to 197 with 53 abstentions a joint resolution of the EPP, GUE/NGL and Greens/ EFA on the 2014 annual report of OLAF's Supervisory Committee, the EP says that the Supervisory Committee points out that at the time of the reorganisation of OLAF (1 February 2012), 423 cases were opened on the same day by a single decision of the Director-General of OLAF (OLAF DG). On the basis of its analysis, the SC concluded that (i) OLAF did not conduct any appropriate assessment of the incoming information for any of the cases analysed by the SC, (ii) for the vast majority of cases there was not even a trace of any assessment activity, and (iii) the OLAF DG opened all the cases in question without establishing beforehand the existence of a sufficiently serious suspicion that there had been fraud, corruption or any other illegal activity affecting the financial interests of the Union and the EP points out that this “is in contradiction with the legal requirement for opening an OLAF investigation in force at that time.”
MEPs also note that, of the 50 recommendations issued by the SC in the first half of its mandate, only 8 were fully implemented.
The SC says the nub of the problem with its effectiveness as a supervisory body lies in a fundamental disagreement about the committee's role between the Supervisory Committee and OLAF's director general.
The EP regrets that the Supervisory Committee is not able to implement its mandate fully and urges OLAF to comply with the legal requirements to enable the SC to fulfil one of its core functions, namely supervising the duration of OLAF's investigations. The EP welcomes, however, the fact that OLAF and the SC have started to work together to improve the information OLAF provides to the SC and to enrich the content of the reports on investigations lasting more than twelve months. Finally, it expresses concern about the transparency of OLAF's participation in the European Commission 'Clearing House' meetings. (Lionel Changeur)