Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1973 of 8 July 2015 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 514/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council with specific provisions on the reporting of irregularities concerning the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and the instrument for financial support for police cooperation, preventing and combating crime, and crisis management

• CELEX: Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/1973
• Articles: 6

Article 1 Subject matter

This Regulation determines which irregularities are to be reported and establishes which data are to be provided by Member States to the Commission

Article 2 Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

(a)

‘suspected fraud’ means an irregularity that gives rise to the initiation of administrative or judicial proceedings at national level in order to establish the presence of intentional behaviour, in particular fraud, as referred to in Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention drawn up on the basis of Article K.3 of the Treaty on European Union, on the protection of the European Communities' financial interests;

(b)

‘primary administrative or judicial finding’ means a first written assessment by a competent authority, either administrative or judicial, concluding on the basis of specific facts that an irregularity has been committed, without prejudice to the possibility that this conclusion may subsequently have to be revised or withdrawn as a result of developments in the course of the administrative or judicial procedure.

Article 3 Initial reporting

1.   Member States shall report irregularities to the Commission which:

(a)

affect an amount that exceeds EUR 10 000 in contribution from the funds;

(b)

have been the subject of a primary administrative or judicial finding.

2.   In the initial report Member States shall provide the following information:

(a)

the name and the Common Identification Code (CCI) number of the national programme and the reference of the project;

(b)

the identity of the natural or legal persons concerned, or both, or of any other entity having a role in the commission of the irregularity and their role, except where that information is irrelevant for the purposes of combating irregularities, given the nature of the irregularity concerned;

(c)

the region or area where the project has been carried out, identified using appropriate information such as the NUTS level;

(d)

the provision or provisions which have been infringed;

(e)

the date and source of the first information leading to the suspicion that an irregularity has been committed;

(f)

the practices employed in committing the irregularity;

(g)

where appropriate, whether the practice gives rise to suspected fraud;

(h)

the manner in which the irregularity was discovered;

(i)

where appropriate, the Member States and third countries involved;

(j)

the period during which, or the date on which, the irregularity was committed;

(k)

the date on which the primary administrative or judicial finding on the irregularity was established;

(l)

the total amount of expenditure of the project expressed in terms of the Union's contribution, the national contribution and the private contribution;

(m)

the amount affected by the irregularity, expressed in terms of the Union's contribution and the national contribution;

(n)

in the case of suspected fraud, and where no payment of the public contribution has been made to the beneficiary, the amount which would have been unduly paid had the irregularity not been identified, expressed in terms of the Union's contribution and the national contribution;

(o)

the nature of the irregular expenditure;

(p)

the suspension of payments, where applicable, and the possibility of recovery of amounts paid.

3.   By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the Member States shall not report to the Commission irregularities in relation to the following:

(a)

cases where the irregularity consists solely of the failure to execute, in whole or in part, a project owing to the bankruptcy of the beneficiary;

(b)

cases brought to the attention of the responsible authority or the audit authority by the beneficiary voluntarily and before detection by either authority, whether before or after the payment of the public contribution;

(c)

cases which are detected and corrected by the responsible authority, or the audit authority, before inclusion of the expenditure concerned in a statement of expenditure submitted to the Commission.

In all other cases, in particular, those preceding a bankruptcy or in cases of suspected fraud, the detected irregularities and the associated preventive and corrective measures shall be reported to the Commission.

4.   Where national provisions provide for the confidentiality of investigations, communication of the information shall be subject to the authorisation of the competent tribunal, court or other body in accordance with national rules.

Article 4 Follow-up reporting

1.   Where some of the information referred to in Article 3(2), in particular information concerning the practices employed in committing the irregularity and the manner in which it was discovered, is not available or needs to be rectified, Member States shall provide the missing or correct information in follow-up reports of irregularities to the Commission.

2.   Member States shall keep the Commission informed on the initiation, conclusion or abandonment of any procedures or proceedings for imposing administrative measures, administrative penalties, or criminal penalties with regard to the reported irregularities, as well as the outcome of those procedures or proceedings. With regard to irregularities for which penalties have been imposed, Member States shall also indicate:

(a)

whether the penalties are of an administrative or a criminal nature;

(b)

whether the penalties result from a breach of Union or national law and details of the penalties;

(c)

whether fraud was established.

3.   At the Commission's written request the Member State shall provide information in relation to a specific irregularity or group of irregularities.

Article 5 Use and processing of information

1.   The Commission may use any information provided by Member States in accordance with this Regulation to perform risk analysis, using information technology support, and may, on the basis of the information obtained, produce reports and develop systems serving to identify risks more effectively.

2.   Information provided under this Regulation shall be covered by professional confidentiality and protected in the same way as it would be protected by the national legislation of the Member State that provided it and by the provisions applicable to the Union's institutions. Member States and the Commission shall take all necessary precautions to ensure that the information remains confidential.

3.   The information referred to in paragraph 2 may not, in particular, be disclosed to persons other than those in the Member States or within the Union's institutions whose duties require that they have access to it, unless the Member State providing it has given its express consent.

4.   The information referred to in paragraph 2 may not be used for any purposes other than the protection of the Union's financial interests unless the authorities that have provided it have given their express consent.

Article 6 Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .