Commission's failures to act on fraud

Despite a doubling of EU funds, the EU Commission has no adequate strategy to prevent fraud with the billions of euros to be disbursed. By today, Friday, the governments of the EU member states must submit their plans to the Commission on how they plan to invest the money from the coronavirus recovery funds. In the coming years, EU payments to member states from the regular budget and the recovery funds will double. At the same time, however, the Commission is not increasing its resources for fighting fraud and corruption at nearly the same rate.

Most recently, Hungary submitted plans to fund a controversial higher education reform that envisaged payments of corona recovery funds into opaque foundation structures. There is a risk that cronies of Prime Minister Viktor Orban would have gained millions from the scheme. After harsh criticism from the European Parliament, the Hungarian government seems to have put the plans on hold for the time being.

Daniel Freund, chairman of the European Parliament’s cross-party Anti-Corruption Intergroup, comments:

“The coronavirus recovery fund is an important sign of European solidarity to deal with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it is an open secret that huge flows of money always attract fraudsters who want to enrich themselves with European taxpayers’ money. There is a pattern of fraud with EU funds in some member states. Every year, billions of euros seep into corrupt channels. At the same time, the Commission fails to take decisive action against it and does not even use existing means to fight corruption. It is unacceptable that money intended for Europe’s recovery ends up in the pockets of corrupt oligarchs and politicians.”