BRUSSELS/Reuters – Auditors have warned that the European Commission and EU government aren’t doing enough to protect the money bloc, warning that corrupt or fraudulent businesspeople might be able to receive the funds. Too few EU blacklists exist.

Report said that the EU’s existing blacklisting systems, which were established in 2016 by the EU to block potentially risky individuals and bodies from receiving EU money, are less strict than those of the United States or the World Bank.

Auditors stated that almost all 448 of those entities which were barred from the EU by 2020 were exempted because they had declared bankruptcy. That would have meant that they could not get EU money. There were only two blacklisted by the EU for fraud and corruption.

The EU auditors reported that the blacklisting system is not required by the EU members, which in reality provide most of the funding.

According to them, “Blacklisting does not work effectively to block EU funds from going out to individuals or businesses involved in criminal acts like fraud and corruption.”

This report examines the funds that were disbursed by the EU in 2020. It paid approximately 150 billion euro ($160 billion) from its budget to researchers, farmers and companies.

The report stated that none of the four countries analyzed for this report, Estonia, Italy Poland and Portugal, had any blacklisting systems in place.

According to the report, it is often difficult for the Commission to access data from national fraudsters and relies heavily on applicants’ words in order grant applications.

The EU Anti-Fraud Office OLAF recommended that about 300,000,000 euros be recovered from EU funds misappropriated in 2020.

($1 = 0.9371 euros)