2013/2132(INI) | [ParlTrack]

Motion for a resolution
Citation 2

– having regard to the report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council entitled ‘Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – Fight against fraud – Annual Report 2012’ (COM(2013)0548) and its accompanying documents (SWD(2013)0283, SWD(2013)0284, SWD(2013)0285 and SWD(2013)0286 and SWD(2013)0287),

Amendment 10 #

Motion for a resolution
Recital A c (new)

Ac. whereas the wide diversity of legal systems and traditions within the EU means that protection of its financial interests against fraud and any other illegal activity is a particularly demanding and unavoidable challenge;

Amendment 11 #

Motion for a resolution
Recital B

B. whereas, t~~he European Union and the Member States share responsibility for protecting the Union’s financial interests and fighting fraud,~~o protect the financial interests of the Union and combat fraud it is necessary to adopt an integrated approach, including strategies for fighting fraud and corruption by means of legal, effective, consistent and equivalent measures throughout the Union; whereas this is a responsibility shared by the EU and Member States and close cooperation between the Commission and the Member States is more essential than ever at a time of budgetary constraint;

Amendment 12 #

Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)

Ba. whereas the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has the responsibility to protect the Union's financial interests by investigating fraud, corruption and any other illegal activities and whereas its Supervisory Committee was established in order to reinforce and guarantee OLAF's independence by regularly monitoring the implementation of OLAF's investigative function,

Amendment 13 #

Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)

Ba. whereas the wide diversity of legal systems and traditions within the EU means that protection of its financial interests against fraud and any other illegal activity is a particularly demanding and unavoidable challenge;

Amendment 14 #

Motion for a resolution
Recital F

F. whereas the scale of ~~tax~~ fraud and tax avoidance in any form and of corruption in the European Union undermines citizens’ trust and confidence in the ~~fairness and l~~Union; whereas greater guarantees of integrit~~imacy of tax collection and the fiscal system as a whole~~y and transparency with regard to public spending are necessary;

Amendment 15 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1

1. Emphasises that it is incumbent on both the Commission and the Member States to do everything in their power to ~~comba~~fight fraud, corruption and all other forms of illegal activity detrimental to the Union’'s financial interests, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union; points out that close cooperation and coordination between the Commission and the Member States is essential in order to ensure that the Union’'s financial interests are protected effectively, and hence such cooperation and coordination must, as a matter of priority, be strengthened and made as effective as possible; points out that protecting the Union’'s financial interests demands an equally vigilant approach to both resources and expenditure;

Amendment 16 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)

1a. Stresses that fraud is an act of intentional wrongdoing and a criminal offence, while an irregularity is a failure to comply with a rule; regrets that the Commission’s report fails to consider fraud in detail and deals with irregularities very broadly; points out that Article 325 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) relates to fraud, not irregularities, and calls for a distinction to be made between fraud and errors or irregularities;

Amendment 17 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)

2a. Calls on the Commission, at the time of initiating the procedure for submission of the annual PIF report, to submit to Parliament a report on the monitoring and implementation of the recommendations adopted by the EP following the PIF report of the previous year, and give a reasoned explanation regarding those it has not considered or has been unable to comply with; calls on OLAF to do the same in respect of measures being sought by Parliament in this report;

Amendment 18 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3

3. Welcomes the main initiatives taken by the Commission, at the European Parliament’'s request, to shape a new EU legislative landscape for anti-fraud policy, and in particular the Commission’'s amended proposal for amending Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 concerning investigations conducted by OLAF and the strengthening of the procedural rights of persons concerned by OLAF investigations; the proposal for a directive on the fight against fraud to the Union’'s financial interests by means of criminal law, which aims to clarify and harmonise Member States’' provisions in criminal law on offences related to the EU budget (COM(2012)363); the proposal for a Council regulation on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’'s Office (COM(2013)534); and the proposal for a regulation on the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) (COM(2013)535)~~, all of which will~~; recognizes the importance for these different pieces of legislation to be well calibrated and thoroughly evaluated; calls on the Council to take the necessary time and not to finalise negotiations in a rush, in order to constitute a robust European legal framework and strengthening the existing institutional tools for protecting the Union’'s financial interests; stresses that a premature transition to the enhanced cooperation procedure should be avoided;

Amendment 19 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3

3. Welcomes the main initiatives taken by the Commission, at the European Parliament’s request, to shape a new EU legislative landscape for anti-fraud policy, and in particular the Commission’s amended proposal for amending Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 concerning investigations conducted by OLAF and the strengthening of the procedural rights of persons concerned by OLAF investigations; the proposal for a directive on the fight against fraud to the Union’s financial interests by means of criminal law, which aims to clarify and harmonise Member States’ provisions in criminal law on offences related to the EU budget (COM(2012)363); the proposal for a Council regulation on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (COM(2013)534); and the proposal for a regulation on the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) (COM(2013)535), a~~ll of which will strengthen the institutional tools for protecting the Union’s financial interests~~s well as the amendment to Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 concerning investigations conducted by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and stronger legal rights for persons concerned by OLAF investigations, all of which will strengthen the institutional tools for protecting the Union’s financial interests; also welcomes the action plan to step up the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion, as well VAT reform in the EU, both of which were initiated in 2011;

Amendment 2 #

Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 a (new)

- having regard to the communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the protection of the financial interests of the European Union by criminal law and by administrative investigations - an integrated policy to safeguard taxpayers' money (COM (2011) 293 final);

Amendment 20 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4

4. Notes that there was virtually no change in 2012, as against 2011, in the number of fraudulent irregularities ~~and their financial impact,~~ ,with 1231 cases of irregularity~~, involving~~ reported as fraudulent, while their financial impact slightly decreased to a total of EUR 392 million, ~~reported as fraudulent~~; notes that the incidence of fraud was highest in the areas of cohesion policy and agriculture – especially rural development and fisheries – which remain the two sectors of most concern, suffering an estimated financial impact from fraud of EUR 279 million and EUR 143 million respectively; underscores, however, the general point that the number of fraudulent irregularities reported and the corresponding sums of money reflect the notion of fraud in its broadest sense and should not be seen as a reliable yardstick for fraud levels as such; calls for clear distinctions to be drawn between cases of fraud, cases of error and cases of irregularity in the 2013 Annual Report on protection of the European Union's financial interests – Fight against fraud;

Amendment 21 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7

7. Observes that the recommendations made by the Commission to Member States in 2011 – particularly on reported fraudulent and non-fraudulent irregularities, the recovery of amounts improperly paid, the monitoring of the results of criminal investigations and the improvement of national fraud statistics – were generally appropriate, and finds it regrettable that a number of concerns were not fully addressed; calls on Member States to ~~ensure that~~follow-up on the Commission’'s recommendations made in 2011 and to ensure that those made to them in its 2012 report are followed in full, and that where action on recommendations cannot be taken they submit a reasoned explanation;

Amendment 22 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)

7a. Proposes looking into the possibility of setting up a team of European customs officials specialised in combating fraud to work alongside national customs authorities;

Amendment 23 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)

7a. Acknowledges that the amount to be recovered following fraud and other irregularity cases in 2012 reached EUR 444 million of which EUR 208 million were already recovered by the Member States; notes that further EUR 83 million were recovered in 2012 which related to cases detected between 1989 and 2011;

Amendment 24 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8

8. ~~Points ou~~Regrets that, although own resources are no longer the main source of EU budget revenue, they still make up 20% of it, with the result that the proper collection of VAT and customs duties has direct repercussions not only on Member States’ economies and the Union budget but also on European taxpayers; recalls that, according to Commission estimates, tax evasion and tax fraud are costing the EU around EUR 1 billion annually, that is to say around of EUR 2000 for every citizen of the Union;

Amendment 25 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9

~~9. Emphasi~~Welcomes the Commission action plan to step up the fight against fraud and tax evasion; stresses that both the Commission and ~~the~~ Member States must pay continuing attention to assessing the effectiveness of, and improving, revenue collection systems and particularly customs surveillance systems; asks the Commission to conduct regular comparative analyses of differences in the effectiveness of traditional national systems for the collection of own resources, identifying best practices fshould continue to give absolute priority to combating fraud and tax evasion, for which purpose it is necessary to develop a strategy for strengthened and multidimensional cooperation and coordination between Member States themselves and with the Commission to allow better use of existing instruments, consolidation of existing legislation, adoption of pending proposals and administrative cooperation; notes that enhanced cooperation between the tax, police and legal authorities within a single country is likewise essential; calls for special attention to be paid to the development of mechanisms for prevention and early detection, result evaluation, improved revenue collection and more eff~~icient recovery and disseminat~~ective customs transit monitoring, th~~em to all the Member States; considers cooperation between the Commission and Member States to be essential, particularly with a view to enhancing customs surveillance~~is being one the areas still affected by the highest rates of systemic corruption in Europe; calls on the Commission and Member States to be more active in the international arena so as to establish standards of cooperation based chiefly on the principles of transparency, good governance and exchange of information;

Amendment 26 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)

9a. Calls on the Commission periodically to carry out a comparative analysis of differences in the effectiveness of national systems for the collection of traditional own resources, including the identification and dissemination of best practices regarding efficient recovery process in all Member States, and to propose suitable measures where necessary;

Amendment 27 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 b (new)

9b. Expresses concern that, although the number of non-fraudulent irregularities reported in 2012 to be affecting income from traditional own resources has remained stable, the total remains 20% above the average for 2008-2012;

Amendment 28 #

Motion for a resolution
Subheading 2 a (new)

Excise Movement Control System (EMCS)

Amendment 29 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)

11a. notes that increased abuse of the Excise Movement Control System (EMCS) by criminal groups has been observed by enforcement agencies; considers that there is a lack of physical controls of goods being transported under the EMCS; stresses that additional investment in controls may result in an increase in collected taxes, and an increase in prevented tax evasion; notes furthermore that according to Council Directive 2008/118/EC article 21 point 3 and article 24 point 3 the competent authorities of the Member State of dispatch and destination shall carry out an electronic verification of the data in the draft e-AD and in the report of receipt; is convinced that there should be criteria set up according to which ready for dispatch and/or received excise goods must be controlled physically by the competent institution of the Member State;

Amendment 3 #

Motion for a resolution
Citation 8 a (new)

- having regard to the communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on an Action Plan to strengthen the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion (COM (2012) 722 final);

Amendment 30 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 b (new)

11b. understands that increased controls might also have the additional benefit of removing those businesses, or front companies, that were only created by criminals to facilitate their fraud; notes that up to date dispatch and receipt of excise goods is confirmed in EMCS by business subjects themselves; requests the Commission to take initiative for a tightening of the EMCS access rights, to include a comprehensive history of compliance before trading so that it is possible to grant business subjects the status of "empowered economic operator" ("trusted business subject") so that only these subjects could operate EMCS directly by themselves.;

Amendment 31 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 c (new)

11c. demands that verification checks conducted by Member States on people and companies applying to the register need to be more robust and comprehensive; understands that goods can easily be miss-declared to evade excise duties; demands therefore a higher degree of cooperation with tax authorities;

Amendment 32 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 d (new)

11d. considers that time limits allowed for the excise movements to go between authorised warehouses are unrealistically long; understands that this allows multiple movements on the same declaration and diversion before the delivery date is entered in the system; demands that competent institution of the Member State of the declared destination and the new destination must be informed about changes immediately by the consignor; demands furthermore that the maximum allowed time for submission of the report on the receipt of the excise goods shall be one working day and furthermore that journey time should be calculated and set up for each transportation in accordance with the type of the means of transport used and distance between places of dispatch and destination;

Amendment 33 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 e (new)

11e. finds that the guarantees required to establish bonded warehouses are too low in comparison to the value of the excise goods; considers that there should be a variable depending on the type of goods and the amount of trade actually occurring;

Amendment 34 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 f (new)

11f. Is concerned since Member States have implemented their own EMCS systems according to broadly defined requirements by the European Commission; requests therefore the Commission to take initiative for a more uniform system across the EU;

Amendment 35 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15

15. Calls on Member States to reform their national tax systems, making them simpler, fairer and more effective so as to facilitate compliance, d~~iscourage~~eter and sanction tax fraud and evasion and boost the efficiency of tax collection; also asks Member States to take heed of the country-specific recommendations made by the Commission in 2013; welcomes the Commission’'s renewed call to Member States to extend their national tax bases and to restrict tax exemptions and deductions, thus enabling them not only to simplify their tax systems but also to avoid increasing their standard VAT rates;

Amendment 36 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)

16a. notes that it takes on average 2 years and 7 months between the start of a fraudulent practice and the moment it is detected; notes furthermore that another 7 or 8 months elapse before the irregularity is reported to the Commission; is concerned since guidelines on the moments when Member States report fraudulent irregularities and/or other irregularities to OLAF, if such guideline exist in a Member State at all, differ not only across the individual Member States, but also across policy areas; expects the Commission to draw up European wide guidelines for the reporting of fraudulent irregularities and/or other irregularities to OLAF;

Amendment 37 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)

16a. Recommends that the staff of the European institutions be required, without delay and without any question of their responsibility being called into question as a result, to notify OLAF of any frauds which have come to their attention in the fulfilment of their duties;

Amendment 38 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18

18. Observes that, on the expenditure side, both the number of cases of irregularity reported as fraudulent and their value are low, that they involve already identified forms of irregularity and that over the period 2008 to 2012, fraud accounted for 5% of the cases reported; notes that, as in previous years, cohesion policy was the field in which most of the fraudulent irregularity – 50% of all cases and 63% in terms of value – was detected; stresses that only a tiny proportion of the cases of irregularity reported as fraudulent related to corruption but that the incidence of such cases is rising; highlights with concern the trend towards simpler forms of fraud, probably reflecting the phenomenon of beneficiaries who would not normally break the law engaging in attempted fraud because of the economic crisis; believes that this trendbelieves that any trend which could be associated with the financial crisis should be monitored and studied in the years ahead;

Amendment 39 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18

18. Observes that, on the expenditure side, both the number of cases of irregularity reported as fraudulent and their value are low, that they involve already identified forms of irregularity and that over the period 2008 to 2012, fraud accounted for 5% of the cases reported; notes that, as in previous years, cohesion policy was the field in which most of the fraudulent irregularity – 50% of all cases and 63% in terms of value – was detected; stresses that, o~~nly a tiny proportion~~ut of the 1194 cases of irregularity reported as fraudulent, 9 related to corruption ~~but~~and that all cases were detected in the cohesion policy area; is concerned that the incidence of such cases is rising; highlights with concern the trend towards simpler forms of fraud, probably reflecting the phenomenon of beneficiaries who would not normally break the law engaging in attempted fraud because of the economic crisis; believes that thisose trends should be monitored and studied in the years ahead;

Amendment 4 #

Motion for a resolution
Citation 15

– having regard to the ~~proposal for a regulation~~Regulation (EU) No XXX/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council o~~n the Hercule III~~f XX/XX/2014 establishing a programme to promote activities in the field of the protection of the ~~European Union’s financi~~financial interests of the European Union (Hercule III programme) and repeal in~~terests (COM(2011)0914),~~g Decision No 804/2004/EC1 a, __________________ 1a To be published in the OJ

Amendment 40 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)

18a. Calls for corruption with an impact on the financial interests of the European Union to be considered as fraud for the purposes of Article 325(5) TFEU and to be included in the Commission’s annual report on the protection of the European Union’s financial interests - fight against fraud;

Amendment 41 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)

19a. Acknowledges that in the agriculture and rural development area, Member States recovered EUR 169.4 million from the beneficiaries during the financial year 2012 while EUR 1 216.8 million remains to be recovered from the beneficiaries at the end of that financial year was; takes note that the recovery rate of 43% is significantly affected by the low recovery rates (below 30%) displayed by six Member States3 a; calls on those Member States to take the adequate measure to ensure significantly higher level of recovery rate; __________________ 3a Belgium (23%), Bulgaria (4%), Greece (18%), France (22%), Slovenia (25%) and Slovakia (26%)

Amendment 42 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)

20a. Regrets however the lack of information on the amounts to be recovered and the recovery rates related to the cohesion policy for the financial year 2012; calls on the Commission to provide detailed information on this respect in its future annual report;

Amendment 43 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22

22. Highlights the continuing wide divergence in Member States’' approaches to fraud, reflecting chiefly legal and organisational differences, both ~~between countri~~among Member States and between administrations in the same country, but also the fact that fraud detection is approached in a variety of ways; ~~points out, too, that Member States are still failing to forward data on time or are supplying inaccurate data, thus impeding comparison and objective country-by-country evaluation of the scale of~~is notably concerned that in cases of fraudulent irregularities some Member States limit their actions to the application of financial corrections instead of investigating the potential criminal offence; emphasizes that such failure to investigate criminal offences could encourage fraudulent behaviours hence undermining the fight against fraud, and ~~that this makes it very hard to assess the real situation~~fraudsters; calls on those Member States to invest more resources to counter fraud including through criminal proceedings; asks the Commission to continue to monitor closely the workings and effectiveness of Member States’' current surveillance and control systems and stresses how important it is that the Commission should establish uniform reporting principles for all the Member States ~~and ensure that the data collected are comparable, reliable and sufficient~~; calls on Member States to implement the Commission’'s recommendations, particularly with regard to early detection, simplification of the rules and rapid reporting; ~~calls, too, for Member States to ensure that the information they submit is as exhaustive as possible, that it reflects the facts and that it is supplied on time;~~(The information related to statistical data would be better placed in a separate paragraph)

Amendment 44 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)

22a. Points out, in addition, that Member States are still failing to forward data on time or are supplying inaccurate data; reminds moreover that Member States use different definitions for similar types of offence and do not all collect similar and detailed statistical data following common criteria which makes it difficult to collect reliable and comparable statistics at EU level thus impeding comparison and objective country-by-country evaluation of the scale of fraud, reiterates its regret that as a consequence it is not possible to evaluate the actual overall scale of irregularities and fraud in individual Member States or to identify and discipline those Member States with the highest level of irregularities and fraud as has been repeatedly requested by Parliament; notes that the Commission invited Member States to improve their fraud statistics and committed to devote more emphasis on the issue; stresses how important it is that the Commission should ensure that the data collected are comparable, reliable and sufficient; calls therefore on the Commission to inform the Parliament on the measures initiated to introduce a higher degree of uniformity and comparability between the statistical data gathered at the national level; urges the Member States to submit on time information as exhaustive as possible adequately reflecting the actual level of fraud;

Amendment 45 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 b (new)

22b. Underlines that greater transparency allowing for proper scrutiny is key to detect fraud schemes; recalls that in previous years the Parliament urged the Commission to take action to ensure one- stop transparency of all beneficiaries of EU-funds from all Member States by publishing on the same Commission's site all beneficiaries of EU funds , independently of the administrator of the funds and based on standard categories of information to be provided by all Member States in at least one working language of the Union; calls on the Member States to cooperate with and provide to the Commission full and reliable information regarding the beneficiaries of the EU funds managed by Member States; regrets that this measure has not been implemented and calls on the Commission to implement it urgently;

Amendment 46 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 c (new)

22c. Notes that in 2012 OLAF made 54 recommendations for judicial action were sent to national authorities and about EUR 284 000 000 was recommended for recovery; regrets the lack of information on the number of judicial proceedings launched and the level of amounts actually recovered based on OLAF recommendations as well as the conviction rate in cases involving offences against the Union's budget; reiterates its call on the Commission and the Member States to ensure the effective and timely implementation of the recommendations made once cases have been investigated by OLAF;

Amendment 47 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)

22a. requests the Court of Auditors to follow-up its previous special reports on the performance of OLAF in order to determine the effects of the reorganization;

Amendment 48 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 d (new)

22d. Is however seriously concerned that in some instances OLAF dismissed cases and transferred those cases back to Directorate Generals for appropriate action while they have no investigative competencies;

Amendment 49 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23

23. Expresses satisfaction that the reform of the rules governing the functioning of OLAF has finally been adopted, and welcomes the communication aimed at ‘Improving OLAF’s governance and reinforcing procedural safeguards in investigations: a step-by-step approach to accompany the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office’ (COM(2013)0533); notes the first positive effects of the reorganisation and restructuring of OLAF’s investigative procedures, leading to clarification of the procedural rights of those subject to investigation, more efficient investigation procedures and a shortening of the average length of time for processing investigations, particularly at the stage of case selection, as well as improved cooperation and dialogue with its partners;

Amendment 5 #

Motion for a resolution
Citation 15 a (new)

- having regard to Directive 2014/.../EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the award of concession contracts, 1a

Amendment 50 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23

23. Expresses satisfaction that the reform of the rules governing the functioning of OLAF has finally been adopted, and welcomes the communication aimed at ‘Improving OLAF’s governance and reinforcing procedural safeguards in investigations: a step-by-step approach to accompany the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office’ (COM(2013)0533); notes the first positive effects of the reorganisation and restructuring of OLAF’s investigative procedures, shortening the average length of time for processing investigations, particularly at the stage of case selectionat on 1 February 2012 a total of 421 cases have been opened at once and closed again during 2012 most of them without recommendation; noticed furthermore that in addition, many cases older than 24 months have been closed in 2012 in which recommendations may not have been made at the time of closing; notes furthermore that this one-time effect is responsible for shorter a duration of investigations on average;

Amendment 51 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)

23a. Notes that since 2012 OLAF establishes Investigation Policy Priorities (IPPs) on a yearly basis in order to improve its investigation selection procedure; observes significant changes between the IPPs selected in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and is therefore concerned by the risk entailed of a lack of consistency in the overall investigation selection procedure; is of the opinion that future IPPs should always be subject to a thorough evaluation assessing based on concrete needs, measurable indicators and lessons learnt from past IPPs; calls on OLAF to provide detailed information on the way it decides on IPPs;

Amendment 52 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 b (new)

23b. Is seriously concerned that the financial indicators for the 2012 IPPs and 2013 IPPs were excessively high and established without adequate consultation with the relevant stakeholders revealing a lack of consistency with the Commission's anti-fraud strategy and putting at risk the effective protection of the Union's financial interests; highlights in particular that OLAF defined the financial indicator for the rural development priority as over EUR 250 000 thus ruling-out 99,83% of cases since the majority of the beneficiaries receives subsidies below that threshold; takes note that the policy on financial indicators has been reviewed but is worried by the absence of financial indicators for the draft IPPs for 2014; supports OLAF's Supervisory Committee recommendations and insists that balanced financial indicators defined in consultation with the relevant stakeholders are key to ensure an efficient case selection procedure;

Amendment 53 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 – introductory part

24. Takes note of the OLAF 2012 annual report and: notes that, over this period, OLAF opened 431 investigations and 287 coordination cases, closed 465 cases, recommended legal proceedings to the national authorities in 54 cases and recommended recovery of almost EUR 284 million (165.8m in revenue and 118.2m in expenditure) and:

Amendment 54 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 – point ii

(ii) recognises that the increase in the number of information coming in from the public sector may be a positive sign of improved cooperation with Member States; notes that OLAF changed way in which it counts incoming information; notes that due to the lifecycle of the programming period more fraudulent irregularities have been reported in 2012 by public authorities since programmes were closed;

Amendment 55 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 – point iii

(iii) reiterates its request for exhaustive information on the nature of follow-up to OLAF recommendations; inter alia the question for how many OLAF cases it was not possible for national courts to follow up on account of (a) insufficient evidence, (b) low priority, (c) lack of legal basis, (d) absence of a public interest, (e) limitation of actions (f) procedural errors, (g) other reasons;

Amendment 56 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 – point iii a (new)

(iiia) reiterates its request to receive more information on the number of on-the-spot checks were carried out in each of the Member States;

Amendment 57 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 – point iii b (new)

(iiib) requests again to receive information on the number of investigations by each investigation area (agriculture, cigarettes, customs, internal EU policies, external aid, internal investigations, structural funds, VAT) for each Member State

Amendment 58 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 – point iii c (new)

(iiic) requests again detailed information in the Annual Reports on the duration of investigations broken down by external, internal, coordination and criminal assistance cases grouped by on-going cases and cases closed at year end;

Amendment 59 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 – point iii d (new)

(iiid) requests again information on the number of on-going and closed investigations in each European institution;

Amendment 6 #

Motion for a resolution
Citation 16 a (new)

- having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 883/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 September 2013 concerning investigations conducted by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Regulation (Euratom) No 1074/19992 a, __________________ 2a OJ L 248, 18.9.2013, p. 1.

Amendment 60 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 a (new)

25a. Takes note of the Supervisory Committee's Opinion 1/2014 on OLAF Investigation Policy Priorities (IPP) and endorses its recommendations, especially with regard to establishing guidelines on the application of financial indicators as a proportionality criterion which would give the unit responsible for case selection a clearer guidance in this respect; expects, furthermore, that future evolution in the IPPs will involve regular dialogue between the Director General of OLAF and the Directors General whose policy areas are covered by the IPPs and the financial indicators therein;

Amendment 61 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 b (new)

25b. Takes note of the Supervisory Committee's remarks as regards OLAF's "de minimis" policy; recalls that the "de minimis" policy is not the only criterion for case selection and that its objective is to ensure that OLAF concentrates its efforts and resources on more serious and complex cases and that human resources are allocated in order to maximise the recovery of the amounts unduly spent from the EU budget; calls on the Director General to take the Supervisory Committee's views into consideration when reviewing OLAF's "de minimis" policy; expects to be duly informed about the Director General's decision in this respect;

Amendment 62 #

Motion for a resolution
Subheading 6

New-look European anti-fraud policy and programmes

Amendment 63 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 a (new)

26a. recalls that according to Article 5 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1848/2006 of 14 December 2006, Member States shall provide information on the initiation or abandonment of any procedures for imposing administrative or criminal sanctions related to the notified irregularities as well as of the main results of such procedures; recalls further that this information shall also indicate the character of the sanctions applied and/or whether the sanctions in question relate to the application of Community and/or national legislation, including a reference to the Community and/or national rules in which the sanctions are laid down; requests to be informed in detail with a comprehensive analysis on the reports received under Article 5 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1848/2006;

Amendment 64 #

Zigmantas BALČYTIS

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 a (new)

26a. Notes that Member States must introduce anti-fraud monitoring procedures and that statistics regarding criminal cases and their outcome are incomplete, making it hard to evaluate fraud investigation and prosecution procedures in the Member States and the effectiveness of future basic policies;

Amendment 65 #

Zigmantas BALČYTIS

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 b (new)

26b. Points out that, for many years, Member States have been failing to pass on data promptly or have been providing inaccurate data, making it impossible to compare the data and objectively assess the extent of fraud in the EU Member States; notes that the European Parliament, the Commission and OLAF are unable properly to fulfil their task of assessing the situation and formulating recommendations; reiterates that this state of affairs is therefore inadmissible;

Amendment 66 #

Zigmantas BALČYTIS

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 c (new)

26c. Calls on the Commission to assume full responsibility for the recovery of funds unduly paid into the EU budget and to establish uniform reporting principles in all Member States with a view to ensuring comparable, reliable and adequate data collection;

Amendment 67 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27

27. Welcomes the ~~first report on~~publication of the first anti- corruption ~~policy~~report and all the suggestions for intensifying exchanges of current good practice and identifying relevant new measures to be taken at EU level; regrets however that the content of the report presents a limited overview of corruption in the European Union; calls for further efforts, commensurate with the large sums of money at stake, in order to prevent and ~~penalise~~sanction efficiently corruption, which corrodes the Europe’san economy ~~and undermine~~, harms Member States’' revenue from taxation and undermines the citizens' trust in their institutions;

Amendment 68 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27

27. Welcomes the ~~first~~publication last February of the first Commission report on anti- corruption policy ~~and all the suggestions for intensify~~in the EU, which indicates that corruption affects all Member States in very different ways and costs the EU economy around EUR 120 billion annually; stresses that European citizens accordingly require guarantees of total integrity and transparency in public spending, e~~xchanges of current good pract~~specially given the current challenges arising from the underlying economice and ~~identifying relevant new measures to be taken at EU level~~financial crisis; agrees with the Commission that the results of the initiatives are very uneven and that more should be done to prevent and punish corruption; calls for further efforts, commensurate with the ~~large sums of money~~major social and economic issues at stake, to prevent and penalise corruption, which corrodes Europe’s economy and social model and undermines Member States’ revenue from taxation;

Amendment 69 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)

27a. Stresses that. in this connection, faced with the current challenges arising from the underlying economic and financial crisis, European citizens are calling for guarantees of total integrity and transparency in public spending;

Amendment 7 #

Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 a (new)

- having regard to Opinion No 1/2014 of the Supervisory Committee of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) on OLAF Investigation Policy Priorities,

Amendment 70 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 b (new)

27b. Calls on the Court of Auditors to study the problem and make recommendations based on its own perspective and experience, in the form of one or more reports on the main issues identified by the Commission report on corruption, taking particular account of findings for individual countries;

Amendment 71 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)

28a. Welcomes the publication of the Commission study "Identifying and Reducing Corruption in Public Procurement in the EU" following the Parliament's request which develops a methodology to measure costs of corruption in public procurement concerning the Union's funds; notes that the overall direct costs of corruption in public procurement in 2010 is estimated to EUR 1.4 - 2.2 billion for the five sectors studied in 8 Member States 4 a; underlines that the study recommended inter alia further transparency in public procurement, improved auditing and evaluation mechanisms, the development of a central collection of public procurement data, an update of the TED- database as well as a reinforced whistle- blowers protection; calls on the Commission to provide information on the policies and measures implemented in order to address those recommendations; __________________ 4a Road & rail, Water & waste, Urban/utility construction, Training and Research & development in France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Spain

Amendment 72 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29

29. Supports the Commission and OLAF on the introduction of an action plan to combat cigarette smuggling and insists that the levels of resources and expertise applied to this area in the past within OLAF should be restored;

Amendment 73 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29

29. SNotes that according to official estimates EU Member States lose over 11 billion euro per year in tax revenues due to cigarette smuggling at the benefit of organised crime networks; strongly supports the Commission and OLAF on the introduction of an action plan to combat cigarette smuggling;

Amendment 74 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29

29. Supports the Commission and OLAF on the introduction of an action plan to combat cigarette smuggling; demands a better cooperation between OLAF and EUROPOL in that regard;

Amendment 75 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31

31. CAsks to be informed of any developments in the discussions of possible re-negotiation of the existing agreements and calls for an independent study of the agreements with the tobacco industry, with a view to quantifying the impact of illicit tobacco sales on own resources, and to a possible extension of the existing agreements to include manufacturers not currently covered by them, the aim being to make tobacco products more easily traceable from manufacture to distribution;

Amendment 76 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)

31a. Welcomes the adoption of the Regulation establishing Hercule III for the financial period 2014-2020; notes that with a budget of over EUR 104 million the programme will co-finance inter alia scanning equipment to identify smuggled goods in trucks, automated container- code and number-plate recognition systems in order to reinforce the fight against smuggling and counterfeiting; regrets the lack of transparency observed during the implementation of Hercule II on the purchase and utilisation of technical equipment by the beneficiaries and reminds that the situation led the Parliament to hold in reserve some of OLAF's appropriations from the 2013 and 2014 Union's budget pending appropriate information to be received on this matter; calls on OLAF continue to provide those information including details on the current status and impact of the financed equipment and to demonstrate greater transparency in the implementation of Hercule III;

Amendment 8 #

Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)

Aa. whereas protection of the financial interests of the EU is a key element of the EU policy agenda to strengthen and increase the confidence of citizens and ensure that their money is used properly;

Amendment 9 #