Activities of Péter NIEDERMÜLLER related to 2018/2152(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the Annual Report 2017 on the protection of the European Union’s financial interests – fight against fraud PDF (188 KB) DOC (65 KB)
Amendments (50)
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 12 a (new)
Citation 12 a (new)
- having regard to the judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-42/171a, criminal proceedings against M.A.S. and M.B., _________________ 1a Judgement of the Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) of 5 December 2017, Criminal proceedings against M.A.S. and M.B., 42/17, ECLI:EU:C:2017:936
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 14 a (new)
Citation 14 a (new)
- having regard to the Commission's communication entitled ‘Fighting Corruption in the EU’ (COM(2011)308),
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 15 a (new)
Citation 15 a (new)
- having regard to Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on public procurement and repealing Directive 2004/18/EC,
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 15 b (new)
Citation 15 b (new)
- having regard to the Commission's EU Anti-corruption Report (COM(2014)0038),
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 15 c (new)
Citation 15 c (new)
- having regard to the European Parliament’s report on ‘Recovery of money and assets from third-countries in fraud cases’(A8-0298/2018),
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 a (new)
Citation 17 a (new)
- having regard to the Resolution of the European Parliament of 26 September 2018 on ‘Fighting Customs Fraud and Protection EU Own Resources’ (2018/2747(RSP),
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 b (new)
Citation 17 b (new)
- having regard to the European Court of Auditors’ special report No 26/2018 of 10 October 2018 entitled ‘A series of delays in Customs IT systems: what went wrong?’,
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
B a. whereas achieving good performance with simplification processes involves regularly assessing inputs, outputs,outcomes and impacts through performance audits;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
B b. whereas the diversity of legal and administrative systems in the Member States needs to be adequately addressed to overcome irregularities and combat fraud; where as the Commission should therefore step up its efforts to ensure that the fight against fraud is implemented effectively and produces more tangible and more satisfactory results;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas the EU has a general right to act in the field of anti-corruption policies within the limits established by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU): Article 67 of the TFEU stipulates the Union's obligation to ensure a high level of security, including through prevention and combating of crime and approximation of criminal laws; Article 83 of the TFEU lists corruption as one of the particularly serious crimes with a cross-border dimension;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas Article 325(3) TFEU states that ‘Member States shall coordinate their action aimed at protecting the financial interests of the Union against fraud’ and that ‘they shall organise, together with the Commission, close and regular cooperation between the competent authorities’;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas VAT is an important revenue source for national budget and that VAT-based own resources constituted 12,1% of the total revenue of the EU budget in 2017;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
C b. whereas Council Resolution 6902/05 on a comprehensive EU policy against corruption, adopted on 14 April 2005, called on the Commission to consider all viable options, such as participation in GRECO or a mechanism to evaluate and monitor EU instruments in relation to the development of a mutual evaluation andmonitoring mechanism;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
C b. whereas the systematic and institutionalised cases of corruption in certain Member States seriously harms the EU’s financial interests while also representing threat to democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C c (new)
Recital C c (new)
C c. whereas the 2017 Special Eurobarometer Report on corruption stated that perceptions and attitudes towards corruption at the overall level remained rather stable compared to 2013, which indicates that no concrete results have been demonstrated in terms of gain of trust of EU citizens in their institutions;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Points out that not all irregularities are fraudulent and that a clear distinction must be drawn between the errors committed;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Calls again on the Commission to establish a uniform system for the collection of comparable data on irregularities and cases of fraud from the Member States in order to standardise the reporting process and ensure the quality and comparability of the data provided;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Expresses its concern that according to the Commission’s statistics, the VAT gap in 2016 amounted to EUR 147 billion, which represents more than 12 % of the total expected VAT revenue1a and that the Commission estimates that intra- Community VAT fraud cases cost the Union around EUR 50 billion annually;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Welcomes the Commission’s VAT action plan of 6 April 2016 to reform the VAT framework and the 13 legislative proposals adopted by the Commission since December 2016 that address the shift towards the definitive VAT regime, remove VAT obstacles to e-commerce, review the VAT regime for SMEs, modernise the VAT rates policy and the VAT tax gap; notes that the ‘definitive system’ proposal could eradicate missing trader intra-community (MTIC) fraud, but would not enter into application before 2022; calls on the Member States to quickly implement the reform of the VAT system and take more immediate actions to control the damage in the meantime, such as in the framework of Eurofisc, OLAF, EUROPOL and the future EPPO;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Welcomes the M.A.S. judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union which requires Member States to ensure that effective and deterrent criminal penalties are adopted in cases of serious fraud affecting the EU’s financial interests in relation to VAT in accordance with their obligations under Article 325 (1) and (2) TFEU;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Regrets that undervaluation of goods still represents a serious harm for the EU's financial interests; welcomes in this regard the pre-infringement procedure against the United Kingdom launched by the Commission in May 2018 because of the outstanding amount of undervaluation fraud affecting traditional and VAT own resources revenue;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Hopes that the currently ongoingWelcomes the amendment of Council Regulation (EU) No 904/20108 of 7 October 2010 on administrative cooperation and combating fraud in the field of value added tax, adopted on 2 October 2018 and hopes that stronger cooperation will efficiently address key aspects of cross- border fraud within the single market, such as missing trader intra-community fraud;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Welcomes the adoption of the Protection of Financial Interests (PIF) Directive1a which clarifies the issues of cross-border cooperation and mutual legal assistance between Member States, Eurojust, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and the Commission in tackling VAT fraud;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Recalls that the Court of Justice has confirmed on several occasions that VAT is a financial interest of the Union, as most recently in the Taricco case (C- 105/14); notes however that OLAF very rarely carries out investigations into irregularities concerning VAT due to a lack of instruments; calls on Member States to endorse the Commission’s proposal to provide new to OLAF to deal with VAT cases such as access to Eurofisc, VIES or bank account information;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5 c. Regrets that an investigation by OLAF on customs fraud in the UK concluded in 2017 revealed substantial VAT evasion in connection with imports through the UK through abuse of the suspension of VAT payment, the so-called customs procedures 42; recalls that these losses are cumulatively estimated to be in the range of EUR 3,2 billion for the period 2013-2016, which also represents a loss for the EU budget; is concerned that the newly adopted amendments to the Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 as regards measures to strengthen administrative cooperation in the field of VAT might not be sufficient to thwart CP42 fraud and calls on the Commission to consider new strategies to track CP42 goods within the EU;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Notes with great concern that tobacco smuggling to the EU has intensified in recent years and, according to estimates, represents an annual loss of EUR 10 billions in public revenue to the EU and Member States’ budgets, while at the same time it is a major source of organised crime, including terrorism; considers it necessary for Member States to step up their efforts to combat these illegal activities, for example by improving procedures for cooperation and the exchange of information between Member States;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Believes that a combination of different detecting methods (release controls, post-release controls, inspections by anti-fraud services and others) is most efficient for detecting fraud and that the efficiency of each method depends on the Member State concerned, the efficient coordination of its administration and the ability of the Member States’ relevant services to communicate with each other;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 4
Subheading 4
EPPO and its future relation to OLAF
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13 a. Welcomes the targeted proposal of the Commission for a revision of Regulation No 833/2013 primarily driven by the establishment of the EPPO; stresses that the future cooperation between OLAF and the EPPO should be based on close cooperation, efficient exchange of information and complementarity while avoiding duplications or conflicted competencies;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 4 a (new)
Subheading 4 a (new)
Anti-corruption
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)
Paragraph 13 b (new)
13 b. Underlines the importance to ensure that OLAF remains a strong and fully-functioning partner to the EPPO, especially since OLAF will be the only body protecting the EU’s financial interests in Member States not willing to join the EPPO;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)
Paragraph 13 b (new)
13 b. Regrets that the Commission stopped publishing its anti-corruption report that was due to be published every two years, but have been published only in 2014; is of the opinion that having anti- corruption factsheets as part of the European Semester, instead, is diffuse and does notgenerate a sufficiently strong political agenda, nor transversal action or evaluation; urges therefore the Commission to continue publishing its anti-corruption reports;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 d (new)
Paragraph 13 d (new)
13 d. Deplores the fact that the Commission did not foster the EU’s participation in the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO); Calls on the Commission to restart negotiations with GRECO as soon as possible;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 e (new)
Paragraph 13 e (new)
13 e. Calls on the Commission to develop a more comprehensive and coherent EU anti-corruption policy, in close cooperation with GRECO and set up an internal evaluation mechanism for the EU institutions;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Calls on the Commission to elaborate a framework for the digitalisation of all processes of implementationfinancing of EU policies (calls for proposals, application, evaluation, implementation, payment) to be applied by all Member States;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Regrets the fact that only few Member States are using new technologies for all the major steps of the procurement process (e-notification, e-access to tender documents, e-submission, e-evaluation, e- award, e-ordering, e-invoicing, e- payment); calls on the Member States to make all the forms of the public procurement process, as well as publicly accessible contract registers, available online by July 2019 while endeavouring to ensure equal access of the EU’s population to broadband and promoting e-literacy;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20 a. Welcomes the guidance prepared by the Advisory Committee for Coordination of Fraud Prevention (COCOLAF) on red flags and best practices in public procurement and irregularity reporting;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23 a. Regrets that the implementation of the new IT systems for the Customs Union suffered a series of delays so that some of the key systems will not be available at the 2020 deadlines set in the Union Customs Code1a;underlines that the swift transition to a paperless customs environment is key to ensure that customs administrations work as if they were one entity; calls on the Commission and the Member States to contribute to the completion and financial sustainability of EU customs information systems;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23 a. Welcomes the 11 joint customs operations of OLAF that successfully targeted various threats such as revenue fraud, illicit cash movements, counterfeit products, cigarette smuggling and narcotics; welcomes in addition the detection of irregularities following Mutual Assistance notices issued by OLAF especially frauds involving solar panels;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 b (new)
Paragraph 23 b (new)
23 b. Underlines that harmonised and standardised customs controls at all points of entry are necessary because an imbalance in the performance of customs controls by Member States impedes the effective functioning of the customs union;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24 a. Expects that the simplification of administrative rules called for in the common provisions covering the period 2014-2020 will make it possible to reduce the number of non-fraudulent irregularities, identify fraudulent cases and improve access to EU funds for beneficiaries;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Underlines the fact that detection capability is a key feature in the context of the anti-fraud cycle, which contributes to the effectiveness and efficiency of the system for the protection of the EU budget; welcomeregrets the fact, therefore, that the most actonly five Member States were very active in detecting and reporting potentially fraudulent irregularities were Poland, Romania, Hungary, Italy and Bulgaria, between them accounting for 73 % of irregularities reported as fraudulent in the common agricultural policy in the years 2013-2017;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Supports the Hercule III programme, which is a good example of the ‘best use of every euro’ approach; expectshopes that its post-2020 successor towill be even more efficient;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 11 a (new)
Subheading 11 a (new)
Transnational fraud
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 a (new)
Paragraph 30 a (new)
30 a. Finds worrisome the increasing threat and occurrence of transnational fraud detected by OLAF; welcomes the adoption of the European Parliament’s report on ‘Recovery of money and assets from third-countries in fraud cases’ (A8- 0298/2018) and the anti-fraud clause successfully incorporated in the free trade agreement with Japan; calls on the Commission to generalise the practice of adding anti-fraud clauses to agreements signed by the EU with third countries;
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Welcomes the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of persons reporting on breaches of Union law (COM(2018)0218); hopes that it will significantly improve the safety of whistleblowers in the Union and the relative proportion of detections coming from whistleblowers, leading to major improvement of the EU’s financial protection and the rule of law;
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Paragraph 31 a (new)
31 a. Emphasises the important role of whistleblowers in fraud prevention, detection and reporting and the need to protect them;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 a (new)
Paragraph 32 a (new)
32 a. Recalls the Commission’s decision not to renew the PMI agreement, which expired on 9 July 2016; recalls that it asked the Commission on 9 March 2016 not to renew, extend or renegotiate the PMI agreement beyond its expiry date; believes that the three other agreements (BAT, JTI, ITL) should be terminated with effect as of 20 May2019; calls on the Commission to present a report by the end of 2018 presenting the feasibility of stopping the three remaining agreements;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 a (new)
Paragraph 32 a (new)
32 a. Calls on the Commission to come up swiftly with the new action plan and comprehensive EU strategy to fight illicit tobacco envisaged for late summer 2018;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Notes that, thus farwith concern that, OLAF’s judicial recommendations have seen only limited implementation in the Member States; takes the view that such a situation is intolerable and calls on the Commission to urge the Member States to ensure full implementation of OLAF’s recommendations in the Member States;