TAE statement regarding the EU proposal for the protection of the financial interests

TAE supports Commissioner Reding’s proposal for the protection of the financial interests of the Community
Simplified rules needed
Bureaucratic burden must be kept in mind

The Taxpayers Association of Europe supports Commissioner Viviane Reding’s proposal as to the criminal-law protection of the financial interests of the European Community. But at the same time the bureaucracy-related burden must not be forgotten.

By creating a European Prosecutor dealing with fraud and waste of EU funds, a demand pursued by the Taxpayers Association of Europe for decades would be put into practice. “Subvention fraud as well as other acts to the financial detriment of the European Community do have no limits. From our point of view, the battle against the waste of public funds and fraud are equally important as the battle against tax evasion. In both cases harm is caused to the State and the society and should be punished”, says TAE president Rolf von Hohenhau.

Our main objective is the prevention of subvention fraud and other acts to the financial detriment of the European Community at the very outset, the avoidance of errors and stricter sanctioning of transgressions.

Both OLAF and the European Court of Auditors do an excellent job. A simplification of applicable rules and, as a consequence, the interpretation and application of such rules would be an enormous contribution in terms of bureaucracy reduction, simplification of controls and prevention of errors and fraud. “Complex, differing and partially conflicting rules open loopholes that foster fraud“, states the Taxpayers Association of Europe.

“In the execution of this proposal of the European Commission particular attention should be paid that the development of unnecessary parallel structures or bureaucracy and extremely sophisticated rules are avoided. More personnel and more rules do not necessarily imply more control and efficiency. Bureaucracy-related costs are a burden for the enterprises and the economy and, at the end of the day, for the taxpayer’s wallet. If bureaucracy has to be set up for a better protection of the European Community’s financial interests, then, bureaucracy has to be reduced to an equivalent extent someplace else“, says the TAE president.

Further information:

TAE Office, Munich, Michael Jäger:
Phone: +49/89/12600820

TAE Office, Brussels, Walter Grupp:
Phone: +32/2/7387112