Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – Fight against fraud 2013 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 EU’s financial interests.

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 around 80% of EU expenditure and collect Traditional Own Resources (TOR). The Commission oversees both of these areas, sets standards and verifies compliance. It is essential that the Commission and Member States work closely together to ensure that work protecting the EU’s financial interests is effective. One of the main aims of this report is to assess how effective this cooperation was in 2013, and how it could be improved.

This report describes the measures taken at EU level in 2013 and provides a summary and evaluation of the actions taken by Member States to counter fraud. An analysis of the main achievements of national and European bodies in detecting and reporting fraud and irregularities relating to EU expenditure and revenue is included. The report in particular highlights the establishment of an Anti-Fraud Coordination Service (AFCOS) in each Member State, as this will facilitate the exchange of key information relating to the EU’s financial interests between Member States and OLAF.

The report is accompanied by six Commission Staff Working Documents. The documents entitled ‘Implementation of Article 325 by Member States in 2013’ and the ‘Statistical Analysis of Irregularities’ contain tables summarising the main results of each Member State’s anti-fraud actions.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)474: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:474:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2014)243: Implementation of Article 325 TFEU by the Member States in 2013 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2014:243:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2014)244: Statistical evaluation of irregularities reported for 2013 own resources, natural resources, cohesion policy, pre-accession and direct expenditure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2014:244:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2014)245: Follow-up of recommendations to the Commission report on the protection of the EU’s financial interests – fight against fraud, 2012 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2014:245:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2014)246: Methodology regarding the statistical evaluation of reported irregularities for 2013 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2014:246:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2014)247: Annual overview with information on the results of the Hercule II Programme in 2012 (Article 7 of Decision 878/2007 of 23 July 2007) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2014:247:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2014)248: Implementation of the Commission Anti-Fraud Strategy (CAFS) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2014:248:FIN

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