Activities of Ramona STRUGARIU 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
Amendments (19)
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Notes that in its study the Commission identifies 9 main criminal markets and estimates that the annual revenues of these markets represented 139 billion in 2019; Stresses in particular that the markets for trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation and migrant smuggling represent 7.185 billion and 289 million respectively; Stresses the importance of the collection of data by the relevant agencies in order to better assess the situation.
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that value-added tax (VAT) fraud is another major component of revenue fraud; is concerned by the fact that criminal groups have been proven to exchange knowledge, information and intelligence in the area of VAT fraud, making extensive use of new technologies, alternative cryptocurrencies and shortcomings of legal business structures to enhance and conceal their criminal activities, generating multi-billion-euro profits from VAT fraud; highlights that according to the 2021 Europol EU- SOCTA Report, VAT fraud is committed by people with good knowledge of the VAT system, legislation and tax procedures;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. HRegrets the lack of harmonisation in national legislation to combat organised crime; highlights that organised criminal groups take advantage of the different laws in individual Member States, and that the development of a harmonised anti-fraud approach at EU level is complicated by differing definitions of organised crime; reiterates therefore its previous calls for the revision of Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA of 24 October 2008, and the need to establish a common definition of organised crime, which should also take into account the use of new technologies and the use of violence, corruption or intimidation by criminal groups to obtain control of economic activities or public procurement, or to influence democratic processes;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Expresses its regret that subsidies are an area affected by fraud on the expenditure side of the Union budget; notes with deep concern that according to Europol reports, the number of such cases has steadily increased over the years; notes that subsidy fraud happens in many areas of EU spending, such as agriculture policy, cohesion policy, research and development and environmental policy; notes with concern that fraudulent applications for EU grants and tenders are usually based on false declarations, progress reports and invoices; points out that many such fraudulent activities are carried out by organised crime gangs;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Notes that the Commission's study identifies six main threats that could within five years significantly alter the way organised crime operates; highlights among these the impact of the coronavirus prompting a change in the modus operandi of organised crime cells; notes that this is also linked to the accelerated use of cryptocurrencies and non-banking payments; notes also that Europol has observed an increase in coronavirus-related criminal activity in the form of online crime, fraud or counterfeiting.
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2 b. Recalls that in order to tackle the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure the sustainable transition of our economies, the Commission is making available EUR 672.5 billion in the form of loans and grants to support the reforms and investments undertaken by the Member States through the Recovery and Resilience Facility; stresses the need to pro-actively ensure that the money is well used but also to provide the necessary resources to the control and audit institutions in order to ensure that the money is used in the interest of all European citizens.
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Takes note of the special impact of organised crime in the misuse of common agricultural policy (CAP) funds; reiterates its concern that the current structure of CAP subsidies incentivises land grabbing by criminal and oligarchical structures; stresses that limited transparency in combination with corruption enables criminal organisations to keep their actions out of sight and prevent EU funding from reaching its intended beneficiaries; reiterates that the development of proper Union-level legal instruments against land grabbing and the enabling effective information sharing are crucial in this regard; highlights that the use of new technologies such as comprehensive digital land registers is essential in enhancing transparency, effective data collection and risk mitigation, ultimately reducing opportunities for fraudsters; welcomes the efforts of the Commission towards expanding the use of such technologies and calls on all Member States to speed up the implementation of these solutions;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes with concern that the Commission and OLAF have identified fraud in public tenders and procurement as a major trend among fraudsters; points out that fraud schemes often take place on a transnational level and can span several (EU and non-EU) countries, making them difficult to identify and dissolve; highlights that timely cooperation between national law enforcement authorities is a key component of an effective response to transnational crime; calls on the relevant European and national authorities to improve the interoperability of their systems, facilitating the timely exchange of information and enhancing cooperation and joint operations for tackling transnational organised crime;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes the start of operations of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) on 1 June 2021; reiterates the need to ensure that the EPPO has all the necessary resources to carry out its functions, in order to protect the EU’s financial interests; responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the EU including several types of fraud, VAT fraud with damages above 10 million euro, money laundering, corruption, etc; reiterates the need to ensure that the EPPO has all the necessary resources to carry out its functions, in order to protect the EU’s financial interests; regrets that five Member States have not yet joined the EPPO; recalls the importance of cooperation with other EU bodies and agencies such as OLAF, Eurojust and Europol.
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Notes that the COVID-19 pandemic creates new opportunities for fraudsters and organised crime; notes with concern that Europol observed a rise in coronavirus-related criminal activities in the form of cybercrime, fraud and counterfeiting; recalls the scams and fake offers of vaccines detected by EU countries, as one of many harmful examples, where fraudsters tried to sell more than 1.1 billion vaccine doses for a total price of over EUR 15.4 billion; highlights that the threat of illicit sales of false COVID-19 Digital Certificates is rapidly growing with numerous examples identified in several Member States;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Is concerned by the assessment of the PIF Report, which found that seven Member States detected fraud in relation to health infrastructure in 2019 and that health infrastructure was particularly affected by violations of public procurement rules; points out that the dependence on emergency procurement procedures in response to the COVID-19 crisis may have aggravated these problems; highlights that emergency procedures must respect the same standards of transparency and accountability as regular procedures; calls on the Commission and Member State authorities to complement these procedures through the use of risk mitigation tools, focusing on prevention, as well as through comprehensive ex-post controls and scrutiny;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Is worried by Europol’s expectation that the recession following the pandemic will create new opportunities for organised crime; warns that as organised crime follows the money, the unprecedented increase in EU spending in the context of the NextGenerationEU recovery plan offers major potential for misuse of funds by organised crime; highlights that this unprecedented increase in spending must be met with proper resources allocated to the relevant institutions which constitute the EU and national frameworks for fighting corruption, fraud and organized crime; recalls in this regard that the use of new technologies such as the ARACHNE and EDES systems should become compulsory elements of implementing the EU budget;
Amendment 33 #
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; regrets that the Commission and national authorities lacks insight into the scale, nature and causes of fraud, and hasve to date not carried out a consistent assessment of undetected fraud; calls on the relevant national authorities to improve data collection and increase the reliability of data communicated to the Commission; calls on the Commission to coordinate and collaborate with Member State authorities in order to carry out a comprehensive EU-wide assessment into the actual size, nature and causes of fraud, involving the relevant EU Agencies and collaborating with partners from the EU's neighbouring countries;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14 a. Underlines that the phenomena of organised crime, corruption and money laundering usually have a cross-border dimension that requires close cooperation between national authorities; Stresses, in this context, the importance of exchanges between law enforcement authorities; Encourages the Commission to develop a common rules framework that would allow Member States to transfer criminal proceedings to another Member State, in order to avoid parallel investigations;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Regards the PIF Directive as an important step towards protecting the EU budget, as it provides a common definition of criminal offences and the misuse of funds, and the harmonisation of sanctions for crimes against the EU’s financial interests; appreciates that the Directive sets out clear reporting and investigation procedures, defines the monitoring of the fraud risk management framework and promotes the use of information, databases and data analytics by Member States; welcomes the Commission's recent assessment on the implementation of the PIF Directive; notes with concern that the Commission identified several shortcomings in the transposition and implementation of the Directive, in particular with respect to the correct transposition of criminal offences, sanctions and provisions on jurisdiction and limitation periods; calls on the national authorities to cooperate with the Commission and swiftly address these shortcomings as a proper transposition is of vital importance in enabling the EPPO to conduct effective investigations and prosecutions;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Welcomes the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), with its mandate to investigate, prosecute and bring to judgment crimes against the EU budget, as an important asset in the fight against fraud and organised crime in the EU; calls for effective funding and appropriate allocation of human resources for the EPPO; regrets that five Member States have not yet joined the EPPO; calls on all remaining non-participating Member States to take the necessary steps towards joining the EPPO; regrets the lack of nominations of European delegated prosecutors, in particular by Slovenia, and considerable delays in many other Member States; highlights that this may represent a substantial hindrance in the EPPO’s effective fight against cross-border crime;
Amendment 53 #
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; calls on the Commission to make use of its prerogatives and take the necessary measures for ensuring the timely and correct implementation of EU legislation;
Amendment 66 #
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; calls on the Commission to consider the extension ofextend the application of EDES to funds under shared management;
Amendment 75 #
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 cooperate closely with the Union bodies, to ensure that funds misused by organised crime are effectively recovered; invites the Commission to assess the possibility of complementing the current fragmented approach towards asset recovery through an EU-wide body in charge of ensuring the timely and effective recovery of EU funds;