Hercule III Programme to finance concrete actions to fight fraud, smuggling and counterfeiting

The European Parliament’s plenary today adopted by a large majority of 644 for, 14 against and 12 abstentions Monica Macovei's Report on the Regulation establishing Hercule III, a programme promoting activities dedicated to the protection of the Union’s financial interests against fraud and smuggling.

Scanning equipment to identify smuggled goods in trucks, automated container code and number-plate recognition systems, detecting false and falsified documents or tracking and tracing equipment to fight against smuggling and counterfeiting are only some of the activities to be financed by Hercule III.

As of 1 January 2014, Hercule III will replace Hercule II and operate under the 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework. With a budget of over €104m, Hercule III will co-finance activities up to 80% of the eligible projects. For Member States facing higher risks, usually the Member States at the borders of the Union, the co-financing rate by the European Commission can go up to 90%.

“All Member States will benefit as once cigarettes or other goods are smuggled into a border EU country, they will make their way to all Member States. In 2011, over €11 billion in tax revenues were lost by EU Member States due to cigarette smuggling. This money went to criminal groups”, Macovei said.

In the past, assessing the efficiency of the Hercule Programme was particularly difficult due to the scarcity of information disclosed by the European Commission and the Member States. The new Regulation requires greater transparency and gives greater scrutiny to the Parliament on the implementation and evaluation of the concrete results, such as the number of smuggled cigarettes seized and confiscated.

“Smuggling methods are evolving fast. For example, in 2012 the crew of a Russian cargo plane smuggled about 4 million cigarettes to Finland on their weekly flights to the country, and Slovak authorities discovered a smuggling tunnel between Uzhgorod in Ukraine and the Slovak territory. Therefore we must develop new methods to identify, stop and punish smuggling and counterfeiting”, concluded Macovei.