Brussels, 03/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission's annual report 2001 on protection of financial interests, adopted on Tuesday by the College of Commissioners, highlighted the fall (compared to 2000) in the number and amount of fraud notified by Member States. In total, 5, 647 cases of fraud or irregularity were brought to the Commission's notice, which represents a total of EUR 687 million, of which 1846 cases in the field of own resources (EUR 256 million), 2,604 concerning agricultural expenditure (EUR 230 million) and 1,194 for structural actions (EUR 201 million).
In the report, the Commission stipulates that the 381 new dossiers examined by the Anti-Fraud Office in 2001 should also be taken into account (the number was up compared to 2000), including the continuation of inquiries on affairs in progress such as: - imports of bananas covered by false licenses (fraud is estimated at EUR 155 million); - aid paid to Spanish flax producers (EUR 100 million) (we would point out that this issue is currently being dealt with by the Commission within the account clearance procedure); - and milk quotas (over EUR 10 million).
The different situations of fraud and irregularity according to the different budget areas are:
Own resources: In 2001, fraud mainly concerned cigarettes and rice as far as the number of cases are concerned, and bananas for the amounts involved. Figures confirm a trend observed during earlier years showing that goods originating in the United States and China are particularly vulnerable to fraud. The report also indicates that the number of cases has fallen by 25% on average compared to 2000, and that the situation is particularly significant in the United Kingdom (-61%), Finland (-44%), Germany (-28%), Netherlands (-22%), Portugal (-42%) and Denmark (-38%). The Commission points out that the direction taken by certain customs inspections towards other areas of activity (for example, the fight against terrorism) could partly explain this trend. The fall in amounts noted is greater than the fall in the number of cases (-51% compared to 2000) due above all to the less significant effect of the "milk products/New Zealand" and "cigarettes" cases. The Commission noted a considerable rise in the amount notified in Spain (+365%), Italy (+140% because of the dossiers on banana imports), Austria (+118%), Sweden (+122%) and Finland (+96%). Member States for which the amounts fell considerably (Germany, Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom) are invited by the Commission to explain the reasons behind this deficit.
Agriculture: As in 2000, the highest number of communications comes from Germany, Spain and France, but Italy comes in fourth position with over 355 cases. Rising, "Italy is the Member State that has the highest level of fraud and irregularities, with over EUR 135 million, followed by Spain with a declared amount of EUR 30 million. Italy represents over half of the total amount of irregularities", the report reads. It should be noted that the number of cases is 10% down compared to 2000. The report specifies that the number of outstanding dossiers is 10,300 up in this field, of which over 30% concern Italy and 20% Spain. The amount still to be recovered is higher than EUR 2.2 billion, with Italy being the main interested party with over EUR 1.5 billion in question.
Structural actions: Even if the number of cases fell compared to 2000, the amounts concerned increased especially with regards the regional fund (over EUR 102 million). The Commission sees this as a sign of improvements in controls in Member States and a better targeting on serious cases. As far as the Cohesion Fund is concerned more specifically, only Greece (out of the four beneficiary countries) has notified four cases of fraud/irregularity. If the total number of cases notified is taken into account, it is again the Social Fund which was the most affected in 2001 (694 cases).
Commissioner Michaele Schreyer said: "we are making progress in implementing our action plan for the protection of the EU's financial interests (2001-2003) (…). However, there is clearly still large scope for improving the tools at our disposal, both in terms of common definitions of fraud and irregularities, the legal instruments to use in the fight against fraud and the concrete cooperation mechanisms". Ms Schreyer also welcomed the progress made concerning ratification and the implementation of the Convention relating to protection of the European Union's financial interests of 1995, while observing that it was still not quite complete (all the Member States ratified the Convention except Italy, and the ratifications of the two relevant protocols must be completed in Germany, Luxembourg, Austria and Finland, states the report).
The report is available on Internet:
http: //europa.eu.int/comm/anti_fraud/documents/annual_reports/index_en.htm