HC Deb 04 March 1994 vol 238 c934W
Sir Ivan Lawrence

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proposals the Government has to tackle the problem of fraud committed against the European Community budget.

Mr. Howard

The Government attach the highest importance to ensuring that effective action is taken to protect the financial interests in the Community. To this end, I have written to the president of the Justice and Home Affairs Council proposing the major new initiative to combat fraud against the budget, involving a legally-binding joint action by the member states of the European Union under title VI of the Maasatricht treaty.

The proposal, which is designed to achieve concerted action by the Twelve to protect the Community's financial interests through member states' criminal laws, will shortly be presented for discussion at a meeting of the relevant EU judicial co-operation working group.

I will arrange for copy of the joint action proposal to be made available to the Select Committee on Home Affairs and to the Scrutiny Committees of both Houses with an explanatory memorandum.