C 214/144
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
16.6.2023
Thursday 19 January 2023
66.
Deeply regrets the fact that five Member States still refuse to participate in the EPPO, namely Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland; 67.
Regrets the fact that the participation of Member States in the EPPO is not obligatory; reiterates its call on the remaining Member States to join the EPPO as soon as possible; calls on the Commission to incentivise participation in the EPPO through positive measures; 68.
Highlights the fact that the legal frameworks of OLAF and the EPPO clearly provide for the two offices to work in close cooperation while respecting their individual mandates, powers and competences; notes in this regard that, in 2021, OLAF opened 26 complementary investigations and carried out eight supporting operations; remarks that OLAF forwarded 167 files to EPPO, mainly related to shared management (63) and direct expenditure (34) and in equal number concerning internal and international investigations (25 cases each); appreciates that this transmission resulted in the opening by the EPPO of 85 criminal investigations and that such cases relate to an estimated total loss to the EU budget of EUR 2,2 billion; encourages both OLAF and the EPPO to continue to enhance their cooperation; 69.
Remarks that OLAF actively cooperates with the ECA, Eurojust and Europol; welcomes the joint efforts of OLAF and Europol to assess the threats and vulnerabilities of the RRF instrument and their cooperation with other Commission services entrusted with supervising the RRF (the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs and the Commission Secretariat-General); appreciates the joint OLAF/Europol report entitled ‘Assessing the threats to the NextGenerationEU (NGEU) Fund’; 70.
Appreciates the working arrangement between Europol and the EPPO, which entered into force on 19 January 2021; notes that working arrangements were also signed on 3 September 2021 for a framework for cooperation between the EPPO and the ECA; 71.
Is aware that the EPPO and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group have also signed working arrangements to guarantee that the EIB can smoothly transmit information falling within the EPPO remit before any action is undertaken by the EIB Inspectorate General; 72.
Calls for closer cooperation with Eurojust; welcomes the sharing of expertise and the exchanges between attendees at seminars and other presentations, but believes that Eurojust’s contribution should be assessed and defined in the framework of the anti-fraud architecture, building on its complementarity with the EPPO and confirming the synergies from its cooperation with OLAF; 73.
Welcomes the launch of Operation Sentinel and the NextGenerationEU — Law Enforcement Forum, the latter of which is a joint initiative, co-led by Europol and Italy, that brings together Europol, the EPPO, OLAF, Eurojust, the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Training and the Member States, providing a forum for intelligence sharing and coordination of operations to tackle the infiltration of organised crime in the legal economy, and to protect the NGEU stimulus package, with a specific focus on corruption, tax evasion, embezzlement and money laundering; takes the view that, in order to effectively address the threat posed by organised crime, the exchange of best practice and development of common and coordinated strategies are pivotal; 74.
Recalls that OLAF was created not only for internal investigations but also to support Member States in external investigations; recalls that the subsidiarity principle prevents OLAF from launching investigations where Member States are in a better position to act, but this does not preclude OLAF from conducting analyses of recurring cases, trends and patterns, or from building on the enhanced cooperation and successful actions brought about by its ability to detect these phenomena; 75.
Acknowledges, on customs-related matters, the extremely close operational coordination between OLAF, the European Union Intellectual Property Office, Interpol and the WCO; regrets the weakness of the Member States’ alert systems; 76.
Is aware that on 18 June 2021 the Commission and the EPPO signed the administrative arrangements for implementing the mutual information and consultation obligations set out in Article 103(2) of the EPPO Regulation, under which the EPPO can more effectively investigate and prosecute crimes affecting the EU budget, and Commission departments can ensure appropriate administrative, financial and disciplinary follow-up of the EPPO’s investigations, including precautionary measures to protect the EU budget;