The UK government is not doing enough to prevent fraud against the EU, a new report has said.
The House of Lord’s report, The Fight Against Fraud on the EU’s Finances, published on 17 April, compiled by the justice, institutions and consumer protection EU sub-committee, recommends that the government should set-up a special department charged with co-ordinating the fight against fraud in the EU.
According to the report, latest figures from the treasury indicate losses to the exchequer amount to about £1 billion through VAT fraud, as well as €77 million thorough fraud in agricultural programmes, and €2014 million in fraud related to cohesion policy.
The report also found that there is a general lack interest from the government in taking EU fraud seriously, a lack of readiness by member states to report instances of fraud to the European Commission, a lack of shared information between authorities, and a breakdown of the relationship between OLAF, Europol and Eurojust.
The committee chairman, Lord Bowness, said that the UK is “failing” to monitor fraud “on its own doorstep.”
“It is extremely worrying that so much money is disappearing from the EU’s budget without anyone really having a handle on where and why it is happening and who is responsible,” he said. “In these difficult economic times, protecting the public purse must be of paramount importance to us all.”
In a statement reacting to the publication of the report, Conservative MEP Philip Bradbourn said that it “is powerful justification for our long-standing demand that the EU should have a commissioner dedicated full time to budget control, one charged not just with monitoring performance but with real powers to investigate and root out fraud right across the union.”
