La Sapienza - Università di Roma

Fraud Repression through EDucation2 (2022-IT-FRED2)

The European project "Fraud Repression through EDucation - FRED2", co-funded by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) of the European Commission within the framework of the "Union Anti-Fraud Programme" (EUAF), was realised in institutional collaboration between the ImpreSapiens Research Centre of Sapienza University of Rome and the Technical Secretariat of the Committee for the Fight against Fraud against the European Union (Co.L.A.F.) - within the framework of the First Level Master's Degree Course in 'Europlanning and European Professions'.

FRED2' sets itself the ambitious objective of initiating intensive cooperation between the academic world (national and European universities) and the Anti-Fraud Coordination Services (AFCOS) of the EU countries (including Italy) in order to set up a permanent study table on the subject of European Funds, aimed at

        identifying new and more efficient mechanisms to protect the EU's financial interests;

        sharing best experiences and good practices in preventing and combating irregularities, fraud and other illegal activities detrimental to the European budget.

Specifically, the project aims to

        undertake an experiential co-lab-learning course (with the participation of academics, law enforcement, AFCOS and practitioners) oriented towards the development of innovative approaches that, thanks to more effective know-how, can improve the identification of new fraud risks and the comparison of control strategies in the area of public budget support, both national and European, with a special focus on the new challenges posed by the context of the new multiannual financial framework and the new instruments adopted such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF);

        set up a special task force, composed of academics and professionals, with the aim of producing a 'pilot study' to analyse risk profiles that could lead to possible illegal behaviour or situations of misuse of European funds;

        to set up a 'European Anti-Fraud Observatory', in a perspective of transnational and multidisciplinary cooperation with a medium- to long-term impact, which will be able to give sustainability to the development of a new network (networking) of useful contacts and targeted relations to improve the knowledge of the phenomenon of fraud and other illegal activities affecting the EU's financial interests.