Activities of Caterina CHINNICI related to 2020/2221(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the impact of organised crime on own resources of the EU and on the misuse of EU funds with a particular focus on shared management from an auditing and control perspective
Opinions (1)
OPINION on the impact of organised crime on EU own resources and on the misuse of EU funds, with a particular focus on shared management from an auditing and control perspective
Amendments (13)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 a (new)
Citation 7 a (new)
— having regard to Special Report No. 13 of the European Court of Auditors entitled "EU efforts to combat money laundering in the banking sector are fragmented and implementationis insufficient" on money laundering,
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 18 a (new)
Citation 18 a (new)
— having regard to the package of four legislative proposals to consolidate EU standards to combat money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT) published by the Commission on July 20, 2021,
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that value-added tax (VAT) fraud is another major component of revenue fraud; regrets the systemic weaknesses of the current intra- Community VAT system and the insufficient exchange of information between Member States; is concerned by the fact that criminal groups have been proven to exchange knowledge, information and intelligence in the area of VAT fraud;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Stresses that post-COVID economic recovery efforts call for the highest level of vigilance to prevent and counter infiltrations of organised crime in the legal economy; underlines in that regard that, as part of an EU coordinated approach, the EU agencies and bodies, such as EPPO, Eurojust, Europol and OLAF, should step up their operational cooperation in order to effectively contribute to fight against organised crime activities and potential fraud of the EU recovery budget; welcomes, in this regards, the recent conclusion of working arrangement between EPPO and OLAF;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Welcomes the set-up of the Next Generation EU - Law Enforcement Forum in Rome on 21September 2021; the Forum, co-chaired by Italy and Europol, aims at outlining the criteria and best practices to prevent any misuse of the NGEU - Recovery Fund, including by organised criminal groups;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Stresses that regular and structured exchanges of information on irregularities in the use of funds should take place between the competent national and EU administrations as well as between the relevant EU and national law enforcement and judicial authorities.
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Is concerned that the task of estimating the extent and severity of the impact of organised crime on the EU budget has repeatedly been judged to be extremely difficult or even impossible, due, among the other reasons, to the different definitions of organized crime among all the Member States; regrets that the Commission lacks insight into the scale, nature and causes of fraud, and has to date not carried out a consistent assessment of undetected fraud; stresses that the lack of reliable estimates prevents an accurate assessment of the situation, which hampers the fight against organized crime;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18 a. Commends the Commission on the new legislative package aimed at revising the AML/CTF framework, a single set of rules that represents a major step forward in the fight against money laundering and will allow for a uniform application of AML/CTF legislation; welcomes, in particular, the proposal for the creation of a new EU agency, as well as the new proposals on crypto-assets, a largely unregulated sector widely exploited by organised crime, which moves large flows of illicit money with impunity on the crypto-currency market;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Regrets that the national approaches to tackle organised crime vary significantly across Member States in terms of legislation, strategies and operational capacity; notes that this is partly due to varying levels of adoption and implementation of EU legislation; highlights in particular the varying role and capabilities of Anti-Fraud Coordination Services (AFCOS) in Member States, which complicate coordination at the national and EU level;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. NRegrets that a recent research indicates that some Member States do not prioritize fraud involving EU funds to the same extent as fraud affecting domestic spending; notes that although the Commission has encouraged Member States to develop national anti-fraud strategies (NAFS), only 13 Member States have done so and none of them used the template provided by the Commission; notes with concern that these differences across Member States pose obstacles for efficient cooperation;
Amendment 59 #
21. Calls on the Commission to develop a common approach for assessing the impact of organised crime andon UE funds and evaluate the effectiveness of measures taken to tackle the problem across Member States; regards as crucial a timely, complete and effective exchange of comparable data andinformation, and therefore reiterates the importance of harmonizing definitions inf ormationder to achieve comparable data across EU bodies and Member States to estimate the impact of the activities of organised crime on EU finances and swift action to combat it;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to consider a more coherent use of all the available tools to detect and tackle fraud, in particular the Arachne IT platform and EDES; emphasises that the interoperability of Arachne, EDES, institutional and national databases is crucial for ensuring an effective information exchange aimed at preventing and identifying fraud against the EU budget; and reiterates its call on the Commission, and in particular on the Member States in the Council, to move closer to Parliament's position in favour of making the use of Arachne compulsory; calls on the Commission to consider the extension of the application of EDES to funds under shared management;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Highlights that an important step in fighting organised crime is making it less profitable; recalls in this regard the work of OLAF, whose investigations are a crucial tool in the fight against fraud; regrets that the indictment rate following recommendations by OLAF to Member States is low and follows a downward trend, as it decreased from 53 % in the 2007-2014 period to 37 % in the 2016- 2020 period; further notes that the extent to which financial amounts recommended for recovery are actually recovered has not been assessed in recent years, and that the most recent assessment covering the years 2002 to 2016 indicates a recovery rate of 30 %; calls on OLAF and the Commission to investigate the underlying reasons and on the Member States to fulfil their legal obligation to recover the funds and to cooperate closely with the Union bodies, to ensure that funds misused by organised crime are effectively recovered;