Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – fight against fraud. 2012 annual report

Each year, under Article 325(5) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, submits to the European Parliament and the Council a report on measures taken to counter fraud and any other illegal activities affecting the financial interests of the Union.

The Treaty states that the EU and the Member States share responsibility for protecting the EU’s financial interests and fighting fraud. National authorities manage 80% of EU expenditure and collect Traditional Own Resources (TOR). In these two areas, the Commission exercises overall oversight, sets standards and verifies compliance. Therefore, close cooperation between the Commission and the Member States is essential for the effective protection of the EU’s financial interests. Consequently, one of the main aims of this report is to assess how effective this cooperation was in 2012 and how it could be improved.

This report describes the measures taken at EU level in 2012 and provides a summary and evaluation of the action taken by Member States to counter fraud. It also includes an analysis of the main results achieved by national and European bodies, in terms of detecting and reporting to the Commission cases of fraud and other irregularities relating to EU expenditure and revenue. The emphasis is on fraud detection, where results are indicative of the ability of the systems and anti-fraud authorities to counter fraud and illegal activities detrimental to EU funds.

The report is accompanied by five Commission Staff Working Documents. The ‘Statistical Analysis of the Irregularities’ document contains tables summarising the main results of each Member State’s anti-fraud action.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)548: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:548:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2013)283: Implementation of Article 325 by the Member States in 2012 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2013:283:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2013)284: Statistical evaluation of irregularities reported for 2012 - Own resources, Natural resources, Cohesion policy, Pre-accession and Direct expenditure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2013:284:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2013)285: Follow-up of recommendations to the Commission report on the protection of the EU’s financial interests – fight against fraud, 2011 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2013:285:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2013)286: Methodology regarding the statistical evaluation of reported irregularities for 2012 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2013:286:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2013)287: Annual overview with information on the results of the Hercule II Programme in 2012 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2013:287:FIN

ESO: Background information: Fighting fraud: Annual report underlines need for strong measures to protect EU budget http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-fighting-fraud-annual-report-underlines-need-for-strong-measures-to-protect-eu-budget/

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