Commissioner tells member states to combat EU fraud at national level

European Union (EU) member states must tighten up anti-fraud measures at the point EU-funded services are delivered on the ground if they are to improve the integrity of the Union’s budget distribution, Siim Kallas, the European Commission’s vice president told a European Parliament (EP) seminar this month (Oct). Given the wide variety of member states’ spending and control mechanisms, it was almost impossible to get national level consensus on signing off on EU accounts, the Commissioner said. Better, he said, to get declarations at the service level: “I consider it crucial that we hold on to this component of the road map” to improved financial reporting. He added that it was the duty of member governments to provide Brussels with a clearer picture of the present controls they have in place at the sector and regional levels so that the Commission was able to make its own assessment of the value of existing statements and declarations.