On Thursday 20 July, the European Commission adopted the 2016 annual report on the protection of the European Union's financial interests, which shows that the number of financial irregularities detected is down by 15%.
19,080 irregularities (fraudulent and otherwise) were reported to the Commission, involving a total of around €2.97 billion, according to the 2016 report on the fight against fraud. Approximately €2.43 billion concerns the expenditure sector of the EU budget. Compared to 2015, the number of irregularities flagged up fell by 15% and their financial value by 8%.
In 2016, 1,410 irregularities were considered fraudulent (6% of all irregularities identified and reported), concerning a total of €391 million (representing 13% of the total financial amount affected by irregularities) from both the expenditure and the revenue sectors. Of this total of €391 million: €236.9 million falls under the cohesion policy (-51% compared to 2015, including €82.3 million in Slovakia and €48.3 million in Romania); €61.8 million falls under the 'management of natural resources' heading (including €49.4 million under rural development).
Anti-fraud measures at EU level. In 2016, a considerable number of measures were adopted to improve the legal and administrative framework for the protection of the financial interests of the EU, the report explains, referring to: - a political agreement between EU institutions on the proposed directive on the fight against fraud damaging the financial interests of the EU by means of criminal law; - in the absence of unanimity on setting up a European Public Prosecutor's Office, a large number of member states decided at the beginning of 2017 to proceed with it in enhanced cooperation; - an evaluation of the application of Regulation 883/2013 on investigations conducted by OLAF; - 16 Commission departments updated their anti-fraud strategies.
In the expenditure side of the EU budget, significant progress was made in 2016 to further reinforce the protection of the EU's financial interests: the Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES) to protect the EU's financial interests started to apply on 1 January 2016.
Finally, the member states reported the adoption of 80 major measures aiming to protect the financial interests of the EU and to fight fraud. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)