Brussels, 21/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - As signalled in EUROPE on 16 May (p.9), the European Commission's Annual Report 2000 on the Protection of the Communities' Financial Interests notes that compared with the previous year, there has been a significant rise in the total number of cases of fraud and irregularities and also in the amounts involved from virtually all areas of the EU's budget. The report highlights that the problem of recovering sums paid fraudulently or in an irregular manner from the EAGGF Guarantee Fund is centred on Italy since Italy alone accounts for three-quarters of the total amount remaining to be recovered. The Commission regrets that Rome is not taking the necessary measures to put an end to this shortcoming. With respect to Own Resources, the Commission finds it unacceptable that Greece has not notified a single case of fraud. The main trends noted in 2000 are as follows:
Own Resources: 2403 cases for a total of EUR 534 million were recorded by the Member States, which is 4.5% down on the number of cases in 1999. The Commission notes that some countries were late in updating their communications. In terms of the sums involved, this has almost doubled on 1998 and 1999. This rise is essentially due to irregularities in the import of dairy products from New Zealand, for which the United Kingdom is being held responsible. There has been a sharp rise in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Finland and Sweden, however, both recorded a sharp drop.
Agricultural Expenditure: Compared with 1999, the number of cases of fraud and irregularities detected by the Member States in 2002 has risen by 10% to 2967. The sums involved rose by 104% to EUR 474.5 million. This significant rise in the amounts involved is principally due to two large-scale cases of fraud in adulterated butter in Italy over a period of several years. Italy heads the list of Member States involved, with 116 cases for a total of EUR 281 million, followed by Germany (940 cases or EUR 10.4 million), the United Kingdom (393 cases or EUR 10.4 millions) and France (261 cases or EUR 15.4 million). The relative incidence of cases of fraud and irregularities relating to the agricultural budget has also risen (1.17% in 2000 compared with 0.74% and 0.73% in 1999 and 1998). The relative incidence is still particularly noteworthy in Italy, Germany and France. France communicated a significantly higher rate of irregular expenditure than in the past. OLAF started investigating 21 new cases concerning agricultural fraud (EUR 102 million). The Commission welcomes the fact that the clearance of accounts procedure enabled it to recover EUR 633.6 million from the Member States in 2000 for amounts unduly paid out from 1996 to 1999.
Structural Fund and Cohesion Fund: France and the Netherlands reported the highest number of cases, mainly concerning the Social Fund. The cases notified by Ireland are notable for their financial impact. The significant rise in the number of cases detected by the Member States and the sums involved has continued into 2000. Compared with the previous year, the number of cases reported has risen by 74% while the total amount involved fell by 5%. The Commission sees this reflecting an improvement in monitoring systems. The number of new cases being investigated by OLAF has risen significantly. OLAF is focussing on projects funded by the Social Fund and the ERDF.
Balance sheet of measures taken by the Member States
In addition to the usual list of suspected or detected cases of fraud and irregularities, the 2000 report has a new heading; an analysis of data communicated by the Member States between 1 may 1999 and 31 December 2001 in order to protect the Community's financial interests. The report outlines, for each budget heading, trends concerning cooperation between Member States, recovery and the ratification of agreements on the Community's financial interests.
The report notes that Denmark, Italy and the United Kingdom made the greatest efforts in the period in question to recover the amounts unduly paid out. In terms of recovering agricultural expenditure, ten Member States (B, DK, EL, F, IRL, I, A, P, FIN, UK) have tightened up their recovery systems. The Commission regrets that only four countries (France, Sweden, Finland and the United Kingdom) have taken new measures for the recovery of structural funding. Eleven Member States adopted (or have prepared) measures for the implementation of the Convention of 1995 on the protection of the Community's financial interests (B, DK, EL, F, IRL, I, A, FIN, S, UK). Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Sweden have paid particular attention to measures to combat corruption. Two Member States (Belgium and Finland) adopted legal measures for combating money laundering while a third (Denmark) amended its penal code to tighten up repression of VAT fraud. Cooperation between Member States is considered satisfactory with regards to own resources for six countries (Belgium, Greece, Spain, France, Austria and Sweden), but the same is not true for agricultural expenditure, although cooperation with OLAF was useful in the case of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Sweden. Cooperation over structural funding is relatively well developed in Irelands, Sweden, Finland and the United Kingdom.