Safeguarding EU funds against fraud & corruption. Jana Mittermaier, Director TI EU Office, Brussels

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1 Safeguarding EU funds against fraud & corruption Jana Mittermaier, Director TI EU Office, Brussels

2 Positive developments + EU anti-corruption report (focus public procurement) + Proposal on fight against fraud through criminal law + Intent to propose a European Public Prosecutor s Office + Proposal on freezing & confiscation of proceeds of crime

3 What are the issues? Transparency Monitoring Prosecution Reporting Recovery Sanctions

4 What more to be done? To safeguard EU funds from corruption!

5 No central database for EU Funds The European Parliament reiterates its belief that transparency is one of the main instruments in achieving legal and regular expenditure and believes that the objective should be the creation of a single and comprehensive online system (a central database) which can be accessed easily by any individual EP Resolution on the 2009 Commission Budget Discharge (March 2011) => Request confirmed in the 2010 Discharge

6 Opaque spending of pre-accession funds Civil society noted that DG Enlargement performed poorly, particularly at the country level. [ ] DG Enlargement s score was lower because the various different websites on which patchy information was provided (with different project codes and titles across the websites) were this year assessed to provide a highly incomplete picture of their development assistance. Publish What You Fund Aid Transparency Index

7 What more to be done? - More transparency! Provide a single EU website publicising the EU budget and all EU funds beneficiaries in a meaningful way including in open data format to allow monitoring of possible cases of fraud or corruption by citizens, journalists, and civil society.

8 No uniform reporting of cases of fraud and corruption European Commission reports that there are still significant differences in the approaches adopted by Member States to report fraudulent and non-fraudulent irregularities. Certain Member States continue to report very low fraud rates. This raises questions about the adequacy of their national reporting systems. Protection of the European Union's financial interests - Fight against fraud Annual Report 2011 (COM(2012)408)

9 Insufficient reporting on cases of fraud and corruption Council proposes a mechanism for informing OLAF about outcomes of criminal cases related to fraud against the financial interests of the European Union, especially those where OLAF was involved Addendum to "Final report on the fifth round of mutual evaluations Financial crime and financial investigations (Council doc /12 ADD 1 REV 1)

10 What more to be done? - Encourage reporting of corruption! Whistleblower protection in EU and national institutions dealing with EU funds, including relating to public procurement procurement Support for civil society structures (e.g. ALACs) encouraging corruption reporting and providing knowledge for the EU

11 Lack of prosecution of cross-border cases European Commission stated: Differences in the legal framework of the Member States and the resulting operational and organisational barriers to cross-border investigations within the EU mean that the financial interests of the EU are not equivalently protected across the EU. European Commission Roadmap on the Proposal to set up the European Public Prosecutor s Office (9/2011)

12 What more can be done? Creation and active promotion of a European Public Prosecutor s Office Pressure on EU countries to adopt common standards in fighting fraud & corruption

13 TI Recommendations in summary Enhance transparency to increase the public s ability to monitor EU funds spending Support civil society monitoring & encourage reporting of fraud cases related to EU funds Harmonise provisions on corruption to EU funds Speed up and ease prosecution of corruption cases related to EU funds

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