Fight against fraud: protection of the Community financial interests, Hercule action programme 2004-2006

The committee adopted the report by Herbert BÖSCH (PES, A) broadly approving the proposal under the 1st reading of the codecision procedure, subject to a few amendments. Two of these reflected the agreement reached between Parliament, Council and Commission at the end of 2003 on running the action programme for 3 years (2004-2006) rather than 5 years (2004-2008) as originally proposed, with a total budget of EUR 11.775 million rather than EUR 21.485 m. The committee also adopted amendments aimed at ensuring that the same assistance was given to exchanges of specialised staff as to other training measures. Lastly, it called for the Commission to submit to Parliament and Council, by 30 June 2006, a report by OLAF on the implementation of the programme and the appropriateness of continuing it.�