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
Date: 2021-03-22
Institutions: European Anti-Fraud Office, European Commission
Subjects: EU financing, EU programme, administrative cooperation, corruption, exchange of information, farming sector, fraud, fraud against the EU, pre-accession aid, tariff policy

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 22.3.2021  COM(2021) 149 final 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)  
 
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 
Committee: 

the  Opinion  of 

the  Economic  and  Social 

17 October 2018 

Date of the Opinion of the European Court of Auditors 

15 November 2018 

Date  of  the  position  of  the  European  Parliament,  first 
reading: 

12 February 2019 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

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; 

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(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: 

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The  financial  envelope  for  the  Programme  amounts  to  EUR  181  207  000  in 
current prices; 

The  Programme  should  be  established  for  the  duration  of  the  multiannual 
financial  framework  2021-2027  laid  down  in  Council  Regulation  (EU, 
Euratom) No 2020/2093; 

It  provides for the adoption  the work programmes  through implementing acts 
without  comitology,  which  strikes  the  right  balance  between  the  procedural 
requirements and the size of the Programme; 

It provides for an indicative breakdown of the financial envelope between three 
components  of  the  programme  and  for  the  possibility  to  reallocate  amounts 
between the three components of the Programme if necessary; 

It  provides  a  ceiling  of  2%  for  expenditure  on  technical  and  administrative 
assistance  in  the  implementation  of  the  programme,  such  as  preparatory, 
monitoring,  control,  audit  and  evaluation  activities,  including  corporate 
information technology systems; 

It  contains  a  non-exhaustive  list  of  actions  eligible  for  grants  and  establishes 
maximum  co-financing  rates  for  grants  of  80%  of  eligible  costs,  which  in 
exceptional cases can increase to maximum 90% of eligible costs; 

It  provides  for  a  delegation  of  powers  to  the  Commission  to  develop  a 
monitoring and evaluation framework of the Programme and to amend Annex 
II that contains a list of monitoring indicators; 

It  introduces  the  requirement  for  the  Commission  to  report  annually  on  the 
performance of the Programme to the European Parliament and to the Council 
in  the  framework  of  the  report  on  the  Protection  of  the  Union’s  Financial 
Interests.  The  Commission  should  duly  take  into  account  recommendations 
from the European Parliament expressed in this context; 

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– 

It introduces provisions on the retroactive application of the Programme from 1 
January 2021 to allow continuity of activities funded by the Programme. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The Commission accepts the position taken by the Council. 

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