The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has reported a record €24.8 billion in fraud for 2024, more than half of which was linked to cross-border VAT scams.
According to the EPPO’s annual report published on March 3, by the end of 2024, the agency was handling 2,666 active investigations, reflecting €24.8 billion estimated damage to the European Union budget.
The report revealed that new investigations had surged by 38 per cent in 2024 compared to the previous year. More than 1,500 new investigations were launched.
These newly opened cases alone accounted for €13.07 billion in estimated losses.
Among EU member states, Italy led with an estimated €3.48 billion in losses, followed closely by Germany (€2.74 billion) and Romania (€2.3 billion).
At the other end of the spectrum, Finland, Estonia and Slovenia reported the lowest levels of fraud-related financial injury.
Some EU countries, including Hungary, Denmark, Poland, Sweden and Ireland, did not report to the EPPO in 2024.
The body also revealed that many fraud cases were linked to the Recovery and Resilient Facility fund– the €648 billion post-COVID instrument designed to support reforms and investments across member states.
“By the end of 2024, the EPPO was handling 311 active cases related to the NextGenerationEU initiative, with 307 linked to the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), making up 17 per cent of all active expenditure fraud investigations”, the EPPO wrote.
The RRF appeared vulnerable to fraud, as the EPPO revealed in October 2024 that loopholes were enabling “double spending” within the fund, leading to the misuse of taxpayers’ money.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has found numerous cases of alleged misuse of European Union Covid pandemic recovery funds – worth billions of euros. https://t.co/IV458GH6ga
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) April 12, 2024
The report highlighted that criminal organisations were systematically involved in fraud cases, posing a significant threat to EU internal security.
The EPPO attributed the rise in fraud detection to improved co-operation with national authorities and a stronger focus on dismantling criminal networks, particularly regarding VAT fraud and EU funds misuse.
European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi said the EPPO’s capacity needed to be updated.
“A few years ago, the general expectation was that the EPPO would not have much to do. It was designed to deal with what was commonly considered ‘niche’ criminality. After more than three years of activity, uncovering a new continent of crime, the EPPO’s capacity needs to be adapted to reality”, she said.
She emphasised that the EU’s anti-fraud framework remained inadequate.
“For us, at the EPPO, these are the key questions: Is EPPO well equipped? Is Europol well equipped? Are there dedicated and specialised investigators from police, tax administrations and customs assigned to support EPPO’s investigations in all the participating Member States?” she said.
“Currently, the answer to each of these questions is ‘no’. If we want the ‘EU antifraud architecture’ to improve, we need each of the answers to be ‘yes’,” Kovesi added.
Nevertheless, in 2024, the EPPO revealed it had handed out 205 indictments, 47 per cent up on the previous year.
According to its report, the rise in criminal investigations has been a constant since the EPPO began operations in June 2021.
It said that proved “the prevalence of crime against the financial interests of the EU has long been underestimated”.
