WRITTEN QUESTION P-2471/01 by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Fraud against the EU committed by Italians.
Date: 2001-09-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU aid, EU control, Italy, fraud against the EU

4.4.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 81 E/183

(2002/C 81 E/215)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2471/01

by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(3 September 2001)

Subject: Fraud against the EU committed by Italians

The Commission grants substantial Community contributions in various sectors and invariably has the task
of carrying out checks and ascertaining any fraud committed by the recipients. Can it supply a list
specifying the cases of fraud against the Community detected in Italy in the years 1998, 1999, and 2000,
the amounts involved, and the percentages recovered to date?

Answer given by Ms Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(2 October 2001)

The Commission would point out that a distinction should be made between direct management of
Community funds and management shared with the Member States (indirect expenditure via the European
Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF-Guarantee) and structural operations).

The Member States have prime responsibility for managing indirect expenditure, including prevention and
prosecution of cases of irregularities and fraud and recovery of funds. Member States are required to notify
the Commission of cases of irregularities. The Commission can be called on to take action in particular, to
carry out checks or additional inquiries.

In Italy(cid:146)s case, recent annual reports by the Commission on the protection of the Communities(cid:146) financial
interests and the fight against fraud give an idea of the number and scale of irregularities as well as the
level of recovery with regard to both the EAGGF-Guarantee and structural operations (1).

In the area of direct expenditure, for which the Commission is responsible, no statistics are available
showing how many Italian nationals have been involved in irregularities and fraud and the percentage of
the amounts recovered.

(1) COM(1999) 509 final; COM(2000) 718 final;

(COM)2001) 255 final/2: See also the First OLAF report on

operational activities (1 June 1999-31 May 2000): http://europa.eu.int/comm/anti_fraud/reports/index_en.htm.

(2002/C 81 E/216)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2487/01

by Pere Esteve (ELDR) to the Commission

(5 September 2001)

Subject: Starting work on the Sant Jordi purification plant

My Written Question E-0470/01 (1) of
proceedings with regard to building a purification plant at Sant Jordi in Mallorca.

last February asked the Commission about alleged illegal

The Commission, which had not been aware of the facts until that point, claims that it contacted the
Spanish authorities to obtain their comments on the application of Directives 85/337/EEC (2) and 97/11/
EC (3) in respect of the case. It would appear that the planned siting did not meet these Directives.

The total cost of the project is 5 000 million pesetas, 85 % whereof is aid supplied from European funds.

On Thursday 30 August, the Spanish Minister of the Environment announced that he intended to begin
building work on the plant in October. Ministry sources stated that with regard to the alleged illegal siting
of the construction project, Brussels had deemed the new plant feasible.