Policy Developments and Best Practices IMCO/CONT Hearing "Combatting customs fraud" 8 April 2019 Georg Roebling, Head of Unit Customs and Tobacco Anti-fraud Policy, AFIS

OLAF mission and mandate OLAF's mission is to detect, investigate and prevent fraud involving EU funds OLAF has a unique investigative mandate: it is the only investigative body at EU level OLAF is a policy actor: it develops EU policies to counter fraud also in the tobacco and customs sectors

1. A modern legal framework: Reg. 515/97 on mutual admin. assistance Amending Regulation 2015/1525 adopted in September 2015 includes: Container Status Messages (CSMs) directory: Data on specific container movements / route of containers Commission receives ~ 1.5 million messages a day 1.5 billion CSMs in database Most cases: misdeclaration of origin of goods

LARGE GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE 2. International treaties / autonomous EU acts: Cooperation with third countries LARGE GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE 1) 80 Agreements, including with the US and China & autonomous legislation like GSP covering further 76 countries. 2) 139 countries under Article 12 of WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.

3. Multilateral treaties: FCTC Protocol Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products First dedicated global anti-smuggling treaty 51 Parties; entry into force: September 2018 Supply chain control, offences and international cooperation

4. Co-ordinated action with Member States: Action Plan to Fight Illicit Tobacco 2018-22 50 Action Items: Fully utilise potential of FCTC Protocol Engage key source and transit countries Focus on some key input materials Invest in intelligence & analysis Material support to MS Targeted operations Study measuring the illicit tobacco market Raise Consumer Awareness

5. IT tools / databases: AFIS Portal 8 800 users globally; applications available based on users rights

6. Sharing Expertise and Good Practices: Data Analysis Group with Member States Bring together customs anti-fraud analysts Explore, discuss & share needs & experience 2018: 2 Workshops, 5 MS visits, 90+ analysts 2019: Further community building, training, data catalogue plus… 2019: Specific projects for analysis

7. IT tools: Container tracking / Automated controls Which one should I control? ConTraffic-SAD: Automatic Verification of “Goods-Origin” in Import Declarations (SAD) Control a few, but verify all !

8. Laboratory analysis: Tobacco Laboratory "Operating a laboratory facility and associated data management for the analysis of tobacco products" TOBLAB

9. Joint Customs Operations JCO RENEGADE (OLAF + ASEM) : 70 000 counterfeit goods JCO Cerberus (FR + OLAF):detention of €6.4 million JCO MAGNUM I + II (Estonia + OLAF): 30 million cigarettes

10. Targeting demand: Public Perceptions Eurobarometer 443 (2016) on illicit tobacco Findings inter alia: Only 14% of respondents consider the illicit tobacco trade as the major source of revenue for organised crime