EU Anti-Fraud Programme

The Anti-Fraud Programme is the instrument ensuring the protection of the financial interests of the EU through its fight against fraud. The aim is to protect the financial interests of the EU and to support mutual assistance between the administrative authorities of the Member States and cooperation between the latter and the Commission to ensure the correct application of customs and agricultural regulations.

The specific objectives of the programme are the following:

1. preventing and combating fraud, corruption and any other illegal activities affecting the financial interests of the Union;
    
2. giving support to the reporting of irregularities, including fraud, with regard to the shared management funds and pre-accession assistance funds of the Union budget;
    
3. providing tools for information exchange and support for operational activities in the field of mutual administrative assistance in customs and agricultural matters.

The current annual work programme, with a budget of €16.5 million, is dedicated to the following types of projects:

• technical assistance measures (€10 million) to help national authorities buy investigation and detection tools, automated number plate recognition systems (ANPRS), forensic equipment, etc;
   
• access to specialised databases (€1.4 million) for anonymous use by national customs and tax authorities;
   
• training, seminars & conferences (€4.2 million), including training of operational staff in national customs or police forces in retrieving, securing and analysing information and enabling them to share best practice.

The funding is provided in the form of grants that cover a percentage of eligible costs.

Eligible entities for grants are public authorities (from EU Member States or associated third countries), research and educational institutes, non-profit-making entities and any legal entity created under EU law or any international organisation.