EN E-001532/2021
Answer given by Ms Johansson
on behalf of the European Commission (21.6.2021)
The Commission always acts upon suspected irregularities affecting the EU budget and can, among others, suspend payments and recover funds.
For spending under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, Member States shall prevent, detect and correct serious irregularities and double funding, ensure audits and controls and the recovery of misappropriated funds. The Commission relies on national control systems but will perform additional checks. The European Court of Auditors, European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) will have the duty to investigate the suspected misuse of funds. Control and anti-fraud measures are checked by the Commission prior to the approval of the national recovery and resilience plans. In case of fraud, the affected amounts would be recovered based on an OLAF recommendation or information by the EPPO.
To help repay the borrowing for NextGenerationEU and in line with the interinstitutional agreement accompanying the new multiannual financial framework1, the Commission will propose new own resources to complement Member States’ contributions to the EU budget.
More generally, the Commission is committed to supporting the Member States in the fight against organised crime and is aware of the increased risk of criminal infiltration into the licit economy due to the pandemic. To that end, the new EU strategy to tackle organised crime 2021-20252 sets out specific actions.
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1 Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management, as well as on new own resources, including a roadmap towards the introduction of new own resources, OJ L 433I , 22.12.2020, p. 28–46
2 EU Strategy to tackle Organised Crime 2021-2025: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12735-Fighting-organised-crime-EU-strategy-for-2021-25_en
Source : © European Union, 2021 – EP