Introduction

• Author: European Anti-Fraud Office (European Commission)
• Pages: 11-16

11

th Annual Report on the Protection of the European Union’s financial interests — Fight against fraud 

. Introduction

This is the Commission’s 30th annual report on the protection of the EU’s f‌inancial in-

terests and the f‌ight against fraud (PIF Report). The f‌irst report was adopted in January

1990. Wit h the entry into force of the Treaty of M aastricht on 1 Januar y 1993, a specif‌i c

treaty article expressly provided for the f‌ight against fraud af‌fecting the f‌inancial inter-

ests of, at the time, t he Communities.

Since 1 May 1999, following the entr y into force of the Treaty of Amsterda m, the annual

reportin g to the European Parlia ment and the Council on me asures taken to count er fraud

and other illegal activities af‌fecting the EU’s f‌inancial interests is covered by a specif‌ic

provision (initial ly Article 280(5) EC Treaty and now A rticle 325(5) TFEU).

The EU and the Member States share responsibility for protecting the EU’s f‌inancial in-

terests and f‌ighting fraud. Member State authorities manage approximately 74% of EU

expenditure and collect the traditional own resources. The Commission oversees both

these areas , sets standards a nd verif‌ies compliance. To prot ect the EU’s f‌inancia l interests

ef‌fectively, the C ommission and the Member Stat es have to work closely together.

Since the reporting year 1989, the PIF Report assesses this cooperation with a view to

improving it . To this end, it:

provides a summ ary of measures taken at EU a nd Member State level to coun ter fraud;

includes an analysis of national a nd European bodies’ main achievements in detecting

fraud and irreg ularities relating t o EU expenditure and r evenue. This is based in par ticu-

lar on detected irregularities and fraud reported by the Member States in compliance

with sect oral regulations.

The 30th e dition of this report will pro vide an overview of the major achieve ments of the

last 30 years a s well as information on the 2018 init iatives. Sections 1.1, 1. 2 and 1.3 be-

low will outline t he past 30 years of f‌ightin g fraud and protecting t he EU budget.

The report is accompanied by f‌ive Commission Staf‌f Working Documents (SWD), listed in

Annex 3 (1).

.. The first decade (-): laying the foundation

At the end of 198 8 the unit for the coordina tion of the f‌ight agains t fraud (UCLAF) was set

up to direct an d oversee all the Commission ’s fraud prevention activi ties, with a 45-point

work programme to carr y out its objectives.

During this f‌irst decade, a number of major legislative acts were adopted, which sig-

nif‌icantly shaped the anti-fraud landscape up to 2017. In 1991, the Council adopted

Regulation 595/91 on the reporting of irregularities in the common agricultural policy.

The Treaty of Maastricht (EUT), which entered into force at the end of 1993, placed

the objectives and the means for combating fraud at the highest legisaltive level and

conf‌irmed the Member States’ obligation to treat the Community’s f‌inancial interests in

the same way as their own in combating fraud, i.e. by using ef‌fective, proportionate and

dissuasive means , thanks to a specif‌ic ar ticle (209A). Tit le 4 EUT provided for closer coop -

eration and th e tools to achieve it.

() (i) Implemen tation of Arti cle  by the Member St ates in ;

(ii) Statist ical evaluation of i rregulariti es reported for ow n resources, nat ural resource s, cohesion polic y and

pre-accession assistance and direct expenditure;

(iii) Follow- up of recommenda tions to the Commi ssion report on t he protection o f the EU’s f‌inancia l

interest s — f‌ight against fra ud, ;

(iv) Early Det ection and Exc lusion System (ED ES) — Panel referre d to in Article   of the Financi al

Regulation; and

(v) Annual over view with infor mation on the res ults of the Hercul e III Programme in  .