Brussels calls on member states to step up fight against fraud
The European Commission has called on EU member states to cooperate more with Brussels on fighting abnormalities with EU funds. A new report shows that over €1 billion of EU money was affected by irregularities and suspected fraud across the bloc in 2006.
EU anti-fraud commissioner Siim Kallas on Monday (9 July) presented the annual commission report on the issue, calling for more timely, precise and complete information from the EU states when they suspect fraud cases.
Join EUobserver today
Get the EU news that really matters
Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.
Choose your plan
... or subscribe as a group
Already a member?
Without cooperation, the bloc cannot successfully fight cases of fraud and other irregularities, which damage the reputation of the EU, he said.
Under EU law, member states must report suspected fraud or other abnormalities concerning EU cash. But Mr Kallas said the EU capitals were not all taking fraud seriously, while others were too slow in reporting cases.
The report shows that the total number of irregularities increased in agriculture, cohesion and pre-accession funds, and decreased for structural funds and so-called 'own resources' - such as customs duties, agricultural duties and sugar levies collected by member states on behalf of the EU.
For example, in agriculture expenditures - which Mr Kallas called "one of the most disputed areas of EU spending" - the irregularities reported were up 3 percent from the previous year, but the total amount involved was 15 percent down to €87 million compared to 2005.
Italy at the top of the class
According to the head of the EU's anti-fraud office OLAF - Franz-Hermann Brüner - Italy, which has the second highest number of active fraud investigations in the EU, has been "exemplary" in cooperating with his office.
But he criticised Belgium, which has the highest number of on-going anti-fraud investigations at the moment for its lack of resources and sluggishness in helping asssist with cases.
Belgium's high number of cases is due to the capital being the home of most of the EU institutions and the slow process of the Belgian investigation authorities is a problem for the reputation of the EU institutions as a whole, he said when launching OLAF's 2006 activity report alongside the commission report.