Protection of the EC financial interests: on-the-spot checks and inspections

- OBJECTIVE: to establish a new and additional legal basis for on-the-spot checks and inspections as part of the fraud prevention programme. - SUBSTANCE: the proposal for a regulation is based on the following approach: - it is left to the competence of Member States to provide, where necessary, additional measures in respect of on-the-spot checks and inspections carried out by their own inspectors; - the text leaves the acquis communautaire intact; - based on the concept of irregularity as defined in the joint guideline, the text lays down rules governing the powers and obligations of the Commission's inspectors and the means at their disposal for on-the-spot checks in the context of an anti-fraud investigation; - it should be noted that the draft text incorporates the amendments put forward by Parliament at the first consultation on the proposal for a regulation on the protection of the European Communities' Financial Interests, and subsequently accepted by the Commission. �