EU BUDGET: THUMBS UP FROM PARLIAMENT FOR FRAUD INVESTIGATION OFFICE.

The Regulation stipulates the missions and the rights of inquiry of OLAF. The latter supersedes the EU's Unit for the Coordination of the Fight against Fraud (UCLAF), and will most likely take effect as of June 1. This reform was one of the main objectives of the European Parliament in the framework of the tortuous Budget Discharge for 1996, which gave Parliament a heaven-sent opportunity to flex its muscle in the run-up to the elections to the European Parliament on June 13. More importantly, the snowball effect from this apparently innocuous Budget discharge exercise covering a period some three years earlier was ultimately to bring the European Commission to its knees. OLAF will be empowered to carry out inquiries both within the EU Member States, and within the civil services of all the European Union institutions (Council of Ministers, European Parliament, European Commission, European Commission etc., and other EU institutions, including the decentralised agencies, such as the Committee of the Regions, European Central Bank). The aim is to protect the financial interests of the European Union, but also to ensure that all types of irregularities which could give rise to administrative and/or legal proceedings will be followed up. These wide-ranging powers justify the...