European Union Mechanisms Counteracting Economic Crime

Abstract

European Union is everywhere faced with problems that arise in the financial sphere. One of the main causes of the problems is corruption in the financial system of the European Union. This article will address the issue of combating the corruption phenomenon, as the most important for the modern development of the entire integration association. At the present stage of the EU’s development, corruption and related organized crime have ceased to be a local problem of the internal policies of individual states and have turned into an international phenomenon, which in the modern world poses a serious danger to the economic well-being of all member states of the association. Transnational corruption creates favorable conditions for the spread of criminal activity that violates the common economic space. The purpose of counteraction both at the international level and at the national level is to reduce the spread to a level that does not impede the progressive development of society. This article focuses on the EU information mechanisms to combat economic crime, namely the features and importance of the EU anti-fraud information system, the European Customs Identification Database and the Customs Information System, and also conducts an international legal analysis of the functioning of the central Anti-Fraud services Co-Ordination Service (AFCOS) of EU Member States.