Maltese MEP Alfred Sant voted in favour of the Annual report 2016 on the protection of EU’s financial interest - Fight against fraud at the European Parliament. The report covers measures taken by the European Commission and the Member States in the fight against fraud and presents their results. The Treaty requires close and regular cooperation between Member States and the Commission, and allows specific measures to be taken in order to provide equivalent and effective protection of the EU’s financial interests.

Sant said the protection of the EU's financial interests’ (PIF) directive and the creation of the European public prosecutor’s office have been the recent EU answers to ensure that our citizens’ money and our national budgets are preserved. It is understandable that after a long period of austerity, one cannot afford to suffer losses stemming from fraud and especially VAT fraud.

The fact that the scope has been widened to include VAT should not pave the way for extended EU control on how Member States collect and choose to set their taxes. The respective competences of the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF) and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) also need to be defined not to overlap on the Member States’ competences in protecting their national revenues and their own tax recollection systems.

“The European Commission could for example support the Member States by establishing a uniform system for the collection of comparable data on irregularities and cases of fraud to standardise the reporting processes. National differences in the reporting process can often lead to ineffective controls. As big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning could improve the detection of suspicious activities, a European system for data mining used for crime detection could represent an efficient anti-fraud instrument.” remarked the Maltese MEP.