Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Change 49

AddedEXPLANATORY STATEMENT

AddedUnder the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Art 325(5)), the Commission is required to produce an Annual Report on the Protection of the EU’s Financial Interests (known as PIF Report), detailing the measures taken at European and national level to counter fraud affecting the EU budget. The report is based on information reported by the Member States, the analysis of this information allows assessing which areas are most at risk, thereby helping to better target action at both EU and national level for protecting the financial interests of the Union.

AddedThe European Parliament pays particular attention to the results reported in the PIF Report and to the analysis carried out, on this basis, by the Commission. Moreover, with the establishment of the Anti-Fraud Architecture, the European Parliament’s INI Report on the protection of the Union's financial interests has become more comprehensive and it includes more data and information, originating also from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and from OLAF Supervisory Committee Annual Reports, from the European Public Prosecutor's Office Annual Report, from Europol and the other components of the Anti-Fraud Architecture, encompassing the implementing actions of the Conditionality Regulation, the transposition of the Directives on Anti-Money Laundering and Whistleblowers, the Strategy to counter Organised Crime and the dedicated provisions of the Financial Regulation.

AddedThe INI Report reaffirms that only by strengthening the EU Anti-Fraud Architecture can the protection of the EU’s financial interests be effectively and efficiently pursued, overcoming the national systems’ inherent limits which are not sufficient to counter the increasingly transnational aggressions to the Union’s financial interests. The Rapporteur stresses that fraud prevention and detection must rely on fraud risk analysis and on further digitalisation and interoperability of databases, and that efficient anti-fraud governance and effective result-oriented processes implemented by adequately equipped structures must be in place, to ensure cooperation and coordination among all the components of the anti-fraud architecture.