Not up to EU to check for fraud says Gentiloni

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 1 - It is not up to the European Union to check Italian projects for fraud, Economic Affairs Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni told La Stampa editor Massimo Giannini Thursday after the latter asked him about the government's decision to strip Italy's Audit Court of its 'concomitant' oversight powers on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), leaving it only able to review the projects once they are complete.
    "It is up to the control systems of the various countries, and Italy has very good ones, to control fraud, corruption, double spending of the various European funds. We cannot control this from Brussels for 27 countries. There are the authorities in charge in the individual countries. I think this is already clear to everyone, it is certainly clear to the Italian government. The European Parliament asks the Commission to go and check investment by investment who will be the beneficiaries of the NRRP funds, we cannot do that," the former Italian premier told Giannini.
    "There are hundreds of thousands of final beneficiaries of the projects. If they are bad, if there is fraud, the national governments will check it," he said. (ANSA).