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Commission urges eight Member States to transpose EU rules to fight fraud against the Union's budget
The Commission has decided to open infringement proceedings against Croatia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Luxemburg, Portugal, Romania and Spain because they did not correctly transpose correctly the EU rules on the fight against fraud to the Union's financial interests by means of criminal law (Directive (EU) 2017/1371).
These rules, which are part of the Commission's overall anti-fraud strategy, protect the EU's budget by harmonising the definitions, sanctions, jurisdiction rules, and limitation periods related to fraud and other offences affecting the EU's financial interests.
A proper transposition of those rules by the Member States is necessary to enable the European Public Prosecutor's Office to conduct effective investigations and prosecutions. The deadline to transpose the Directive into national law expired on 6 July 2019. In its transposition report on the Directive on 6 September 2021 the Commission identified a number of compliance issues. It shows that improvements are necessary, notably to ensure the consistent transposition of the definitions of criminal offences and the liability of – and sanctions for – legal persons and natural persons.
The eight Member States notified by the Commission today now have two months to clarify the measures they have taken to ensure the correct and complete transposition of the Directive.