Brussels, 15/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - AT Friday's ECOFIN Council the European Commission's report on Community budget fraud in 2001 was presented. Commissioner Michale Schreyer launched an appeal to Italy to present its 1995 Convention ratification instrument on protecting EU financial interests and the protocol on corruption (ratified by other Member States) so that they can finally enter into force. Ms Schreyer also made a commitment to improve statistics and methods on Community budget fraud and asked Member States to be more methodical so that instances of fraud and other irregular payments could be better identified.
In 2001 there was a decrease in the number of fraud cases transmitted by Member States (compared to 2000). Ms Schreyer stressed the cases communicated by Italy had doubled (see details in EUROPE 4 July). She outlined that the Commission would make the "necessary corrections". The Commissioner also pointed out that only four Member States (Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and Sweden) had taken an official line on the subject of the Commission's suggestion (published in its Green Paper on judiciary protection of Community financial interests) that aim to create a European Prosecutor. She expressed her wish that other Member States do so quickly too.