On Thursday 3 September, the European Commission adopted the 2019 annual report on the fight against fraud. The report states that “the number of irregularities detected and reported by Member States is lower than in previous years”.
The number of irregularities reported as fraudulent and the associated amounts are not a direct indicator of the level of fraud affecting the EU budget.
In 2019, a total of 939 irregularities were reported as fraudulent (i.e. 8% of all irregularities detected and reported), involving about €461.4 billion euros (representing 28% of all financial amounts affected by irregularities) and covering both expenditure and revenue in the EU budget.
The number of fraudulent irregularities reported in 2019 and their related financial amounts decreased significantly compared to 2018.
Over a five-year period (2015-2019), the number of reported fraudulent irregularities was 40% less than in 2015 and 25% below the five-year average. The financial impact fluctuates, as it can be particularly affected by individual cases involving very large sums.
In 2019, the Commission was notified of 10 787 irregularities reported as non-fraudulent (stable in comparison to 2018). The financial amounts involved decreased by 8% to approximately €1.2 billion.
The report can be found at: https://bit.ly/3i2gK6M (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)