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 Commiss ion’s 30th ann ual report o n the protec tion of the EU ’s f‌inancial in-

terests an d the f‌ight agai nst fraud (PIF Re port). The f‌i rst repor t was adopte d in January

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

treaty ar ticle expre ssly provided for th e f‌ight against fr aud af‌fectin g the f‌inanc ial inter-

ests of, at the time, t he Communities.

Since 1 May 1999, follo wing 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 illeg al activit ies af‌fecting t he EU’s f‌inanc ial interest s is covered by a speci f‌ic

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

The EU and th e Member States s hare responsi bility for protec ting the E U’s f‌inancial in-

terests an d f‌ighting frau d. Member Stat e authorit ies manage ap proximately 74% of EU

expenditu re and collec t the tradit ional own reso urces. The Co mmission oversee s 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 repo rting year 19 89, the PIF Rep ort assess es this cooperat ion 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 a nalysis of national a nd European bodies’ main achiev ements in det ecting

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

lar on detec ted irregul arities and fr aud report ed by the Memb er States in compl iance

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 repor t is accompanied b y f‌ive Commission St af‌f Working Docu ments (SWD), lis ted 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 f‌ir st decade, a nu mber of major legislat ive acts wer e adopted, wh ich sig-

nif‌icantly sh aped the an ti-fraud lan dscape up to 2 017. In 1991, the Council adopt ed

Regulation 595/91 on the reporting of irr egularitie s in the common a gricultural p olicy.

The Treat y of Maastri cht (EUT), w hich entered i nto force at the en d of 1993, place d

the objecti ves and the mea ns for combating fr aud at the highe st legisaltive l evel and

conf‌irmed t he Member State s’ obligation t o treat the Com munity’s f‌ina ncial intere sts in

the same way as t heir own in combat ing fraud, i.e. by u sing ef‌fective , proport ionate 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  .