A4-0257/96

Resolution on the European Commission's Work Programme for the fight against fraud for 1996 (COM(96)0017 - C4-0117/96)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the 1996 Work Programme for the fight against fraud (COM(96)0017 - C4-0117/96),

- having regard to the Commission's 1995 Annual Report on the fight against fraud (COM(96)0173),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the opinion of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights (A4-0257/96),

1. Adopts the following position:

(a) an effective and credibly implemented campaign against fraud is a factor which contributes to acceptance of the European Union by its citizens and thereby has an effect which goes beyond the financial aspect;

(b) in the narrower sense also, fighting fraud not only protects the financial interests of the Community, but also contributes directly to protecting the financial interests of all European tax-payers;

(c) the measures to combat fraud, their successes and failures, are therefore being followed increasingly closely and critically by a wide public;

(d) the Commission's Annual Report and its Work Programme form an important basis on which to judge the anti-fraud strategy;

(e) it is therefore of the greatest importance that these documents should be readable, clearly structured and comprehensible, and that it should be possible to check the information in them. The European Parliament welcomes the Commission's efforts in this respect and calls on the Commission to continue along the same lines;

(f) the Commission should endeavour to bring the publication dates of the Work Programme and the Annual Report closer together. With the present structure it is difficult to make a direct link between the measures announced in the Work Programme and an assessment of their success or failure;

(g) the period covered by the Work Programme should no longer be that of the calendar year, but should be more closely linked to the publication of the Annual Report. The proposed Work Programme would be published jointly with the Annual Report, at a time such that Parliament would be able to deliver its opinion on both documents before the summer recess;

(h) this would make it possible to incorporate in the Annual Report all the analytical and evaluative parts of the Work Programme, as well as pure statements of intent. The Work Programme could then take the form of a list of clearly defined points. This would enable it to be shorter, making it easier to assess the success of the measures;

(i) measures intended to extend over a long period or to operate on a permanent basis should be indicated;

(j) all points mentioned in the Work Programme must be taken up in the Annual Report, and their effectiveness assessed;

(k) the Annual Report should include the following:

- the previous Work Programme with a precise evaluation of the measures implemented,

- a clearly structured overview of the state of legislation in the European Union and the Member States. Political difficulties in transposition of legislation should be precisely and comprehensibly described and their consequences analysed,

- a report on the work of the task groups,

- an overview of developments in high-risk areas and a clear definition of what is regarded as a high-risk area and why,

- a report on the extent to which knowledge gained from experience in combating fraud has been incorporated into the Commission's legislative activity,

- a separate report and analysis of the consequences of fraud which are not simply financial in nature, such as distortion of competition, breakdowns in consumer protection, etc.,

- an annex containing, for example, important Council decisions or recommendations, basic Commission or Parliament documents, etc.;

(l) the European Parliament calls on the Commission to analyse in more depth whether, and to what extent, encouragements to fraud are already present in directives and regulations (in the high-risk areas) or are a result of their complexity or the difficulty of checking compliance with them. The Commission should consider in particular whether, in the high-risk areas, the instruments used (subsidies, refunds, etc.) adequately fulfil their real purpose or whether they could be replaced by other instruments which are more efficient and less open to fraud. The Commission should comment on these questions each year in the Annual Report;

2. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council.