Activites

• 1998/10/26 Final act published in Official Journal
• 1998/10/07 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T4-0558/1998 summary

    In adopting the report by Mr Herbert BÖSCH (PSE, A) on UCLAF, the European Parliament proposed the setting-up of an Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) by joint decision of the European Parliament, the Council, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Auditors. The Commission was called upon to submit by 1 December 1998 a proposal for a decision to this end. Deploring the shortcomings and ineffectiveness of UCLAF as revealed by Special Report 8/98 by the Court of Auditors, Parliament called for the future Commission proposal to incorporate the following elements: -OLAF should replace the Commission's present Unit for the Coordination of Fraud Prevention (UCLAF) and should be granted extensive powers of inquiry into the administrations of all the European Union's institutions. The latter should provide any information which OLAF deems necessary for the purposes of investigations; -the outcome of the investigations should be communicated to the competent judicial authorities. To that end, a unit should be set up within OLAF consisting of experts, appointed by the national prosecutors, who would be responsible for liaising with the national judicial authorities; -the work of OLAF should be managed by a Board of Directors whose members should be appointed by the institutions, and OLAF's work should be supervised by a supervisory body composed of five people appointed by Parliament with the assent of the other institutions, being persons whose independence is beyond doubt and who possess the qualifications required for appointment to high judicial office; -the decision to institute an investigation should be taken by the Director of OLAF, either at the request of an institution or on his own initiative. He would be appointed by the Commission, with the approval of Parliament, for 5 years. He could be dismissed at the request of the Board of Directors; -the OLAF budget should be published in Part A of the Commission's budget. As regards OLAF's Establishment Plan, the report proposed 300 posts (as against approximately 130 at UCLAF at present), of which half would initially be temporary posts, with an appropriate percentage of the officials in Category B. Specific recruitment procedures should be used for that purpose. As far as OLAF's geographical location was concerned, Parliament proposed that it should have departments in Brussels and Luxembourg, as well as branch offices set up in the Member States or third countries on a permanent or temporary basis. Parliament called on the Commission, immediately after the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, on the basis of the new Article 280 of the EC Treaty, to submit proposals for regulations dealing with: cooperation between the Union's institutions and the national judicial authorities, OLAF's exercise of its powers (the power to bring proceedings, protect files, etc.), judicial scrutiny of the work of OLAF, and the requirement for officers of OLAF to take the oath. These Regulations should replace the conventions and protocols on combating fraud that had not been ratified by the Member States and were therefore as yet inoperative.�

• 1998/10/06 Debate in Parliament
• 1998/09/02 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0297/1998
• 1998/01/16 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1997/11/18 Non-legislative basic document published
  • SEC(1997)2198 summary

    OBJECTIVE: to define a strategy for combating fraud and corruption in the Commission. SUBSTANCE: In its document the Commission considers that reforms are urgently needed in the organisation and internal operation of the Institutions and the Commission in particular, with regard to financial management and administration. There have already been many initiatives in this area, for example the SEM 2000 initiative with regard to protecting the Community's financial interests or more recently, MAP 2000 aiming to strengthen all the aspects of personnel policy and administration in the Institutions (in particular, to encourage a greater sense of responsibility among staff). The document points out, however, that more needs to be done with regard to internal Commission services. In particular, (1) a new single structure is needed for the administration and technical management of financial assistance granted by the Community to third countries (with transparent and uniform procedures for tendering, etc.); (2) effective measures must be put in place to detect and punish irregularities, fraud and corruption within the Commission itself. The document concentrates on this last point and envisages a strategy for combating corruption entailing a 'graduated' response to misconduct. Various approaches are described to reinforce financial management and administration in the Commission : - strengthening the role of the UCLAF (Commission Anti-Fraud Unit) with regard to investigations, to ensure its independence and power to investigate and to strengthen its relations with the Member States' judicial and penal authorities ; stricter obligations to cooperate with this service must be placed on officials; - investigations: as fraud can affect several Commission units, the aim is to set up a permanent monitoring group acting as a horizontal task force; there would also be, as needed, an independent unit of 'people with authority' in parallel with the existing services; - changes to the disciplinary code for officials: the Commission hopes in particular that the role and composition of the disciplinary board will be revised and a provision introduced in the Staff Regulations to emphasise the obligation of 'loyalty' in serious situations; the range of sanctions must also be widened and appropriate measures adopted to suspend staff; - waiving the immunity of officials and other staff: the Commission considers that, when justified by the situation, accelerated procedures should be used to waive immunity. It should also be possible to authorise searches in Commission premises when this is justified (this procedure already exists, but is very complex).�

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: SEC(1997)2198
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A4-0297/1998
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0558/1998

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)