BUDGET: ALL EU AGENCIES MUST IMPLEMENT ANTI-FRAUD LAW IN FULL.

The procedure initiated by the Commission is targeted first of all on the ECB. The Governing Council adopted a Decision, on September 9, 1999, as regards combating fraud, a Decision that does not recognise the OLAF's explicit competence within the ECB. The second procedure is focused on the EIB. The European Commissioner for the Budget, Michaele Schreyer, has been empowered by the Commission to deal with the matter. The EIB, in a decision by its Management Committee notified to the Commission on November 16, 1999, on the issue of cooperation with OLAF, does not recognise the explicit competence of OLAF with regard to its own resources activity.Whilst accepting the independence of the two institutions (the Treaty recognises this explicitly in the case of the ECB), the Commission says that the provisions the EIB and the ECB have taken are not compatible with the Regulation of May 25, 1999 created by OLAF. Regulation 1073/1999/EEC proposes that OLAF should carry out...