position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Union Anti-Fraud Programme

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the

2018/0211 (COD)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION

TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT



pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union



concerning the

position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Union Anti-Fraud Programme

(Text with EEA relevance)

1.Background

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and to the Council

(document COM(2018) 386 final – 2018/0211 COD): 30 May 2018 Date of the Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee: Date of the Opinion of the European Court of Auditors 17 October 2018 15 November 2018 Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 12 February 2019 16 March 2021

2.Objective of the proposal from the Commission

In the context of the preparation of the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF, 2021-2027), the Commission has proposed to establish an Anti-Fraud Programme. The Programme has two general objectives:

(1)Protect the financial interests of the European Union;

(2)Support to mutual assistance between the administrative authorities of the Member States and cooperation between the latter and the Commission to ensure the correct application of the law on customs and agricultural matters.

Deriving directly from the general objectives, the specific objectives of the Programme will be threefold:

(1)Preventing and combating fraud and any other illegal activities affecting the financial interests of the Union;

(2)Supporting the reporting of irregularities, including fraud, with regard to the shared management and pre-accession assistance funds of the Union budget;

(3)Providing tools for information exchange and support for operational activities in the field of mutual administrative assistance in customs and agricultural matters.

The Anti-Fraud Programme will largely roll over the current Hercule III spending programme supporting activities against fraud and any other illegal activities affecting the financial interests of the Union, and combine it with the financing basis for two operational activities:

(1)The Anti-Fraud Information System (AFIS), which is an operational activity consisting of a set of customs IT applications managed by the Commission to perform the tasks entrusted to it by Regulation 515/97 on mutual administrative assistance in customs and agriculture; and,

(2)The Irregularity Management System (IMS), for the reporting by Member States of detected fraud and irregularities, and their management and analysis by the Commission.

3.Comments on the position of the Council

The position of the Council as adopted in the first reading fully reflects the agreement reached in the trilogue between the European Parliament, the Council, and the Commission, as concluded on 8 December 2020. The main points of this agreement include the following: