The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report
by Ingeborg GRÄSSLE (EPP, DE) on the proposal for a regulation
of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation
(EU, Euratom) No 883/2013 concerning investigations conducted by
the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) as regards cooperation with
the European Public Prosecutor's Office and the effectiveness of
OLAF investigations.
As a reminder, the proposed amendment to Regulation No
883/2013 is a consequence of the adoption of the European Public
Prosecutor's Office and aims to ensure consistency in the legal
framework for the protection of the Union's financial interests. It
seeks to adapt the operation of OLAF to the establishment of the
EPPO and enhance the effectiveness of OLAF’s investigative
function.
The committee recommended that the European
Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary
legislative procedure should amend the Commission's proposal as
follows:
- recall that the European Public Prosecutor's Office
will generally be responsible for criminal cases and will carry out
administrative investigations to combat fraud, corruption and any
other illegal activity or irregularity affecting the Union's
financial interests;
- abolish the distinction between external and internal
investigations, which has become obsolete, in particular with the
new focus of OLAF on administrative irregularities and
recovery ;
- the right of OLAF to have access without notice and
without delay, where necessary to establish whether there has been
fraud, corruption or any other illegal activity or irregularity
affecting the financial interests of the Union, to all relevant
information and data relating to the subject matter of the
investigation, regardless of the type of medium on which they are
stored;
- possibility for OLAF to request from economic
operators duly documented information processed in accordance with
the regular standards of confidentiality and data protection.
Economic operators should cooperate with the Office;
- remove priorities from the investigation policy and
provide that the evaluation period preceding the decision to open
an investigation may not exceed two months. If the informant who
provided the underlying information is known, he or she shall be
kept informed as appropriate;
- obligation on the Director-General to send the
relevant information to the institution, body, office or agency
concerned without delay if he decides not to open an investigation
within the institutions despite sufficient suspicion suggesting the
existence of acts of fraud, corruption or other illegal
activities;
- obligation on the Director-General to inform the
Supervisory Committee periodically about the cases in which he or
she has decided not to open an investigation, indicating the
reasons for that decision;
- improve the follow-up of the Director-General's
recommendations by Member States and institutions, bodies, offices
and agencies;
- faster closure of investigations: if an investigation
cannot be closed within 12 months after it has been opened, the
Director-General shall, at the expiry of that 12-month period and
every six months thereafter, report to the Supervisory Committee,
indicating in detail the reasons for the delay and the remedial
measures taken with a view to speeding up the
investigation;
- creation of a right of access to the final report
drawn up by OLAF for the persons concerned following its
investigation, as well as to any relevant document insofar as they
concern that person and if, where appropriate, neither the European
Public Prosecutor nor the national judicial authorities object
within six months;
- appointment of a controller of procedural guarantees
by the Commission for a non-renewable five-year term;
- establishment of a complaints mechanism to monitor and
ensure compliance with procedural guarantees in all OLAF
activities;
- full protection for persons who report offences and
offences against the Union's financial interests to the
Office;
- the introduction of a right for data subjects to bring
an action against the Commission for annulment of the investigation
report sent to the national authorities or
institutions;
- further promote the admissibility of OLAF reports in
national judicial and administrative proceedings;
- notification without undue delay to the European
Public Prosecutor's Office of any criminal behaviour in respect of
which it could exercise its competence and obligation for OLAF to
refrain from applying any measure likely to jeopardise any future
investigations by the European Public Prosecutor's
Office;
- obligation for the Member State to explain the reasons
for its decision to OLAF when the latter makes judicial
recommendations to the national prosecuting authorities in a Member
State and these are not followed up; once a year, the Office shall
draw up a report in order to report on the assistance provided by
the Member States and the follow-up given to judicial
recommendations.
Lastly, OLAF shall develop a procedural code for
investigations to be applied by OLAF staff.