Bulgarian Socialist MEP Appointed Deputy Chair of EP Anti-Mafia Committee

Bulgarian socialist MEP Iliyana Yotova has been elected Deputy Chair of the Special Committee on Organized Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering (CRIM) at the European Parliament.

The Special Committee on Organized Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering (CRIM) was set up in March 2012 further to the adoption, on 25 October 2011, of the European Parliament resolution on organized crime.

CRIM was established to study and analyze these criminal activities and to draw up a comprehensive, structured plan to combat them at EU level.

According to a media statement of the press office of Yotova, she takes over the post of Deputy Chair of CRIM at a decisive stage of the debate on the preparation of a legal framework on the fight against criminal activities in the EU.

Right after her appointment as Deputy Chair of CRIM, she presided over a sitting of the Commission during which a draft interim report featuring recommendations on action and initiatives to be taken in the sphere of combating organised crime, corruption, and money laundering was presented.

The report, which is to be ready by September, proposes a legal framework on combating misuse of European taxpayers' money.

The need for a common approach to the fight against organized crime presupposes a coordinated legal framework for the territory of the entire EU, greater bank transparency, the creation of EU public prosecutor's office and blacklists with companies suspected of misusing EU funds.

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