§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the cost to the United Kingdom as a result of fraud within the European Union in each of the last three years. [104257]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe European Commission produces a report each year entitled "Protecting the Community's financial interests and the Fight against354W Fraud", which includes figures for detected fraud and irregularities against the EC budget. The latest report, for 1998, was published on the Commission's public internet website on 19 November 1999 and previous reports are available in the House of Commons Library. However, it is important to note that the majority of the cases are not deliberate frauds but irregularities which may be the result of genuine errors, for instance payment made outside prescribed time limits.
Classification between fraud and irregularity is difficult because cases where there is a suspicion of fraud will be subject to lengthy investigations and legal proceedings. The Commission estimates in its report on the 1998 figures that, on a preliminary analysis, there was a suspicion of fraud in about 20 per cent. of the cases detected.