Ref. Ares(2016)6816933 - 06/12/2016
European Commission
Date: 02.12.2016
Joint Research Centre - Ispra Site
Mission No: DF-16-1295513
Mission Report
Name Directorate/ Unit/ Project
I / 3/ EMM
Object of the mission
Give a presentation about our work to
1. Eurofisc WF4 meeting group (combat against VAT fraud)
2. Finnish Prime Minister’s Office and other authorities
Place, date, organizations visited and contacted persons
(Please continue on a separate sheet, if necessary)
17.11.2016
(Eurofisc
)
Eurofisc WF4 meeting group, Hotel
(Finnish Prime Minister’s Office)
Scandic Marski, Helsinki
Finnish Prime Minister’s Office,
Helsinki
Other Participants
Distribution List
Of the establishment
Other services of the
Obligatory(*) + Messrs.
Commission
(*), JRC
I3 Unit, JRC xx@xxx.xx.xxxxxx.xx
For sensitive mission reports, distribution must only be
only to persons indicated by (*) and relevant staff
members of the GlobeSec Unit
Main Results of the mission:
(Please attach as many separate sheets as necessary)
Background
The JRC has developed (with the mandate of DG HOME) a number of tools for media monitoring and
Open Source Intelligence (commonly abbreviated as OSINT).
These tools are used to monitor public media and to gather information from publicly available sources
for law enforcement as well as for tax and customs purposes.
The Commission has adopted an action plan1 to foster the cooperation of MS authorities in the fight
against VAT fraud and to ensure the correct application and collection of VAT. As a tool towards this
goal, the Eurofisc network has been established2.
1 See http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/action-plan-vat_en
The chair of the November Eurofisc meeting in Helsinki invited us to give a presentation about our
tools in order to encourage member state authorities to use open sources for VAT fraud investigations.
In November 2016, the JRC organised the annual EMM OSINT Workshop for officials from MS
authorities. A delegation from Finland participated and expressed interest in our tools to be used in a
yet to be established situation room.
Presentation at the Eurofisc Meeting
I presented the EMM Family of tools to the MS delegates of the Eurofisc meeting. The presentation
covered the following topics:
JRC’s Mission and Background
Live Demo of EMM Media Monitoring Suite
Live Demo of EMM OSINT Suite
Discussion how the tools can be used in tax administrations
The live demonstrations showed practical end user applications of the software tools, such as how to
generate a newsletter from the NewsDesk editorial software.
In the short Q&A section a delegate of the Dutch tax administration noted, that they are already using
the EMM OSINT Suite with success in their investigations.
Since the meeting was confidential, I had to leave the meeting after my presentation.
Presentation at the Finnish Prime Minister’s Office
In the afternoon, I was invited to present our work at the Prime Minister’s Office in Helsinki. Our
contact
attended our EMM OSINT Workshop in November and had assembled around
20 participants from different national authorities, such as the prime minister’s office, tax
administration, national police, military and state security service.
The Finnish authorities are planning to create analytical capabilities in OSINT under the lead of the
Prime Minister’s office. Later, the Prime Minister’s Office plans to make these new capabilities
available to other national authorities.
My presentation covered the following agenda points:
JRC’s Mission and Background
Live Demo of EMM Media Monitoring Suite
o Category Editor
o BigScreenMap application
Live Demo of EMM OSINT Suite
We discussed especially the applications that are usable for a situation room, such as the
BigScreenMap.
After the meeting the Finnish authorities expressed interest in using some of our tools but are currently
still in an early stage of planning.
Follow-up Actions
Give Finnish contacts access to EMM applications for further evaluation
2 See Commission press release
http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/sites/taxation/files/resources/documents/2011-02-
07_eurofisc_pressrelease_en.pdf