PRESENTATION BY RUMEN PETKOV. Mr. Rumen Petkov, Minister of Interior, delivered his speech:

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1 Mr. Rumen Petkov, Minister of Interior, delivered his speech: Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for the opportunity to welcome the participants in the 6 th Training seminar of the OLAF Anti-Fraud Communicators Network concerning Transparency and Media Relations as a Means of Fighting Fraud and Corruption Affecting the EU Financial Interests. The seminar provides a forum for exchange of information and good practices in topical aspects of media s activity concerned with improving the media contribution in the fight against fraud and corruption within and outside the European Union. It is also a good opportunity to share the problems you are faced with when performing your important mission. The participation of representatives of different institutions and the topics that will engage your attention focus the efforts of all competent authorities towards effective protection of the EU financial interests. This meeting is a guarantee for strengthened cooperation at national level and improved communication and information exchange with OLAF and its partner institutions. OLAF is unique among the European institutions with the independence of investigations. The communicators network is an important tool of the OLAF Communication Strategy. Fraud and corruption in the European institutions undermine the confidence in the Community in general. The Communication Strategy aims to prevent fraud and corruption through the free-flow of information whereby OLAF creates a dialogue with its partners at national level. This is particularly important for the acceding countries where the societies need to be informed of the main forms of abuse of Community s financial interests, which involve a real and substantial loss for them as European taxpayers. An informed society puts more effort in protecting its interests and in warning special authorities of existing irregularities.

2 The European Anti-fraud office (OLAF) is a very important partner of the Bulgarian institutions involved in fighting fraud and corruption. We believe and we hope that Bulgaria s efforts in this area have been and will be acknowledged long before the appreciation of the country s overall ability to become a full member of the EU. Our cooperation has been proven more than once in practice. The honorable Mr. Kulha, Permanent Representative of OLAF at the EC Delegation in Sofia has been working directly with the Ministry of the Interior. A Permanent Representative of the MoI has been working actively with the OLAF European group of experts fighting the production of counterfeit EURO. The establishment of National Anti-Fraud Coordinating Services (AFCOS) is part of the institutional development to create involvement of all institutions in fighting fraud and in fraud prevention. A direct result of the existing collaboration was the setting up of AFCOS - Bulgaria in the beginning of It was built on the experience of the Coordinating Services in the EU member states and its main functions are: to ensure coordination among the competent bodies to expose and prevent fraud and violations with EU funds and property; to interact with the European Anti-fraud Office and the competent authorities within the member states and in other countries; to interact with the courts; to propose measures for preventing and fighting fraud and misuse, etc. The AFCOS Council is presided by the Minister of the Interior and its members include: representatives of the competent bodies within the MoI; Ministers and Deputy Ministers of almost all Ministries, receiving and managing EU funds; the Director of the National Investigation Service, the Executive Director of the State Receivables Collection Agency (SRCA), and the Chief Prosecutor.

3 Within the context of harmonization of Bulgarian legislation with the acquis, a number of amendments were introduced in the Penal Procedure Code in order to ensure serious penalties for any fraud and misuse of the EU funds. Special consideration is given to the protection of the EURO from counterfeit production. The law provides for very serious penalties for the perpetrators of such crime. AFCOS - Bulgaria coordinates work on specific instances of fraud based upon OLAF inquiries submitted to the AFCOS Secretariat or to the relevant authority. Bulgaria investigates suspicions of fraud affecting the financial interests of the EU based upon such OLAF requests. The National Services of the MoI - The General Directorate for Fighting Organized Crime, The General Police Directorate, Border Police and the Customs Agency as well as the Financial Intelligence Agency all perform independent or joint investigation of leads provided by OLAF. When necessary, we provide assistance to OLAF personnel when they perform field inspections for compliance with EU legislation. The Bulgarian side supplies all the necessary information during such visits or within reasonable terms thereafter. The National Police Service has the necessary framework to address fraud with EU funds as a priority. The General Directorate for Fighting Organized Crime is focused on efforts to prevent counterfeit of currency notes and specifically of the EURO. This has resulted in the prevention of fraud in the amount of hundreds of thousands EURO. Recently, a joint operation of the National Security Service and the Customs Agency seized EURO 3 million worth of cigarettes about to be smuggled into EU member states. In this way - through independent operations, on the one hand, and through participating in joint operations with our European counterparts, specifically with OLAF and EUROPOL as international partners, Bulgaria has become an active and

4 reliable partner and a secure outside border for the EU. It is a future member of the EU family which can be trusted in the fight against fraud with EU funds. It is the duty of the institutions to inform the society on anti-fraud issues. This information is an important tool for prevention of fraud and irregularities. Prevention mechanisms are effective when their implementation is resultoriented and when they operate in a rule of law and respect for personality perspective, with involvement of maximum number of government institutions, bodies of local government, non-governmental organizations and the whole society. Bulgaria is on the eve of its full EU membership and it will joint the European family. Now we are more motivated than ever to prove that the accession process is not a matter of compromise but of winning a deserving place among the European states. The process of harmonization of national legislation with the acquis registered notable progress in the past few years. The set up of an inter-departmental Anti-Fraud Coordination Service (AFCOS) demonstrates our efforts to improve the administrative capacity of the right-administrating authorities and to guarantee effective protection of the EU financial interests. Bulgaria s strategic geographical location and the effective operations enhance the role of the country as a Balkan anti-fraud center. The results achieved by the National Operating and Coordinating Center, the Regional Interdepartmental Information Center for the Balkans at MoI and the National Center for Analysis of Unauthentic and Forged Notes and Coins at BNB are a sign of the direct commitment undertaken by our country to guarantee the security of the euro. The good information exchange on

5 forgeries resulted in successful joint operations with the special services of other states. To make all possible actions along these lines efficient, it is very important to have individual efforts made at the right place and to ensure that the measures taken have crossing point. Of course, this is possible when the participants from the different institutions know one another, when there is transparency of work, and when they cooperate on a direct and regular basis with ideas and experience. Dear participants in the seminar, your attendance at this forum proves that there is will and actions are taken to cope with the problem, which calls for the conclusion that we are on the right path. We share the idea that our consensus is growing into a mechanism of full cooperation in our immediate daily work. We do not compete; we complement one another, united by our common cause. Of key importance for good cooperation is the fact that the established relations of mutual trust will ensure and guarantee quality performance of our joint projects and plans, consistency and continuity of actions, correctness and constructiveness. Mutual trust is a guarantee of future success. I wish all of you successful work! Thank you for your attention!