Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – fight against fraud. 2015 annual report

The EU and the Member States share responsibility for protecting the EU’s financial interests and fighting fraud. National authorities manage approximately 80% of EU expenditure and collect Traditional Own Resources (TOR). Under shared management, the primary responsibility to prevent, detect, investigate and correct irregularities and suspected fraud lies with the Member States.

This is the second annual report on the protection of the European Union’s financial interests presented by the current Commission, in cooperation with the Member States. It covers anti-fraud measures taken by the Commission and the Member States and the results of these measures. This work is performed in accordance with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Regulations and other instruments on the protection of the EU’s financial interests and the relevant national legislation.

The Commission and the Member States protect the EU budget from undue or irregular expenditure or evasion of customs duties and other levies, mainly through:
(1) preventive actions;
(2) investigative actions;
(3) corrective mechanisms (primarily financial corrections imposed on Member States but also recoveries from recipients of EU payments for the expenditure side and collection of evaded customs duties and other levies);
(4) repressive measures (in particular by the Member States for the shared management funds and Traditional Own Resources).

The conclusions and recommendations included in the 2015 report are based on an analysis of the information available for the past five years and the problems and risks identified during that time.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: SWD(2016)234: Implemention of Article 325 TFEU by the Member States in 2015 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2016:234:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2016)235: Statistical evaluation of irregularities reported for 2015 Own Resources, Natural Resources, Cohesion Policy, Pre-accession and Direct expenditure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2016:235:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2016)236: Follow-up of recommendations to the Commission report on the protection of the EU’s financial interests - fight against fraud, 2014 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2016:236:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2016)237: Methodology regarding the statistical evaluation of reported irregularities for 2015 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2016:237:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2016)238: Annual overview with information on the results of the Hercule III Programme in 2015 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2016:238:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2016)239: Implementation of the Commission Anti-Fraud Strategy (CAFS) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2016:239:FIN

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