Strengthening EU Financial Interests: The Guardia di Finanza and European Public Prosecutor's Office Initiative

The Commander of the Special Units of the Guardia di Finanza, Corps General Umberto Sirico, on behalf of the General Commander Andrea De Gennaro, and the Prosecutor of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) delegated for Italy, Andrea Venegoni. The initiative - it is written in a note from the Guardia di Finanza - aims to further improve the efficiency of investigations concerning the most serious hypotheses of damage to the financial interests of the European Union for which EPPO is competent, namely frauds in the sector of European funds for amounts greater than ten thousand euros and those related to VAT worth more than ten million euros. Operational contacts of the offices of the European public prosecutor will be the Command for the Protection of Economy and Finance and the employees of the Special Revenue and Tax Fraud Repression Unit, the Special Public Spending and Repression of Community Frauds Unit, the Special Currency Police Unit. The operational memorandum follows, moreover, the signing of the Working Agreement between the Guardia di Finanza and EPPO concerning training activities, under which the EPPO Academy was established at the School of Economic and Financial Police of the Corps, a structure charged with providing training to officials from the Member States of the Union and to EPPO position holders.