Fraud costs EU EUR 600m annually

(THE HAGUE) - The European Union loses some 600 million euros ($800 million) to suspected fraud every year and it will consider setting up an office to combat it, a senior official said Tuesday.

"There are now figures that make us believe 600 million euros of the European Union budget continue to disappear every year" due to fraud, EC Director-General for Justice Francoise Le Bail said.

"This is the tip of the iceberg. That is why the commission will come with a proposal in 2013 to ... create a European public protector's office," Le Bail said on the sidelines of 10th anniversary celebrations of Europe's justice coordination body, Eurojust in The Hague.

"We are looking for a better way to fight fraud ... but it is too early to say what we are looking at in details," Le Bail said.

Speaking at the same press conference, Eurojust president Aled Williams said criminals were becoming more sophisticated through the use of technology and the free movement of people in the EU.

"The very fact is that perhaps 20 years ago it was very rare to have a mobile phone," Williams said.

"Nowadays they are universal and the equipment of any self-respecting drug dealer."

The opening of European markets "has brought some considerable advantages to the European Union, said Williams, adding "it (has) also meant the ability for criminals to broaden their activities."

Eurojust comprises prosecutors, magistrates and police officers from the 27 European Union member countries, working together to coordinate investigations and prosecutions, and sharing information and personal data.

It helped coordinate a probe in December find assets of deposed strongmen Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine el Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia in Europe and North America.