About: OLAF Archives

EXCLUSIVE / The European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, raided on Wednesday (29 November) the premises of the European Court of Auditors, the watchdog of EU finances, according to reliable sources who spoke to EURACTIV.

Romania's National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) has charged Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD), on suspicion of forming a 'criminal group' to funnel European Union funds, after an investigation by the EU's anti-corruption body OLAF.

Andrej Babiš, the Czech billionaire who is a leading candidate to become prime minister in elections next week, said yesterday (9 October) that he had been charged with fraud over EU subsidies received by one of his companies.

A Luxembourg-based chief prosecutor, first envisioned in the 2009 Lisbon Treaty, will start work next year after getting final approval from the European Parliament today.

With an extravagant football stadium and an EU-funded narrow-gauge train famed for its lack of passengers, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's home village of Felcsut makes for an offbeat tourist destination.

Britain will not rule out the possibility of the European Union retaining oversight of customs controls at UK borders after it leaves the bloc, as the country seeks ways to keep unhindered access to EU markets following Brexit.

The European anti-fraud office that is investigating whether Volkswagen used EU funds and European Investment Bank (EIB) loans to develop devices that cheated emission tests has sent its judicial recommendations to German prosecutors.

At his first EU summit last week French President Emmanuel Macron signalled that there will be a change of attitude vis-à-vis the EU's 'rogue countries'.

The Romanian government has been accused of bias in its awarding of EU funding to the country’s intelligence services. The e-Governance project is also facing serious allegations that it violates European and domestic laws on personal data protection.

EU leaders agreed to slice up a controversial bill to open the first EU public prosecutor's office, with some backers calling it a victory of “multi-speed Europe” because it will free countries that opposed the new set-up to drop out.

Tobacco smugglers have found new ways of expanding their illegal activities and now focus on a trend called "cheap whites", which is raising new challenges for European regulators and Europol.

Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová is continuing with her ambitious plans to set up a European Public Prosecutor Office by 2019. But the member states still have doubts about handing over control to a centralised EU agency. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete will have to appear before the European Parliament to respond to the accusations of his alleged involvement in the ‘Panama papers scandal’ and a corruption case in Spain.

The Director-General of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has been stripped of his diplomatic immunity and could face questioning by Belgian investigators in a case linked to the 2012 resignation of a European Commissioner in a lobbying scandal, officials said Thursday (10 March).

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an international press freedom organization, has written to the Bulgarian Prime Minister, and top EU leaders, expressing concern that Bulgarian journalists investigating a huge corruption case have been harassed, warning they are at risk of retaliation for their reporting.

German MEP Birgit Collin-Langen (EPP) is quitting her second job on the board of energy giant RWE. Collin-Langen announced she'll leave RWE's board after an investigation came out on Wednesday (18 June) that put MEPs' additional sources of income under the spotlight.

European Parliament President Martin Schulz today (13 March) brushed off accusations of hypocrisy made by Marine Le Pen’s National Front, after he reported the far-right party to anti-fraud investigators.

John Dalli, the former EU health commissioner, challenged EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso in court on Monday (7 July), declaring he was unfairly forced out of his job and maintaining his innocence in a graft scandal.

Former Slovenian MEP Zoran Thaler was sentenced last week to two and a half years in prison by a Ljubljana court following his involvement in the “cash-for-amendments” scandal from 2011, a journalistic spoof aimed at “testing MEPs’ ethics”.

The European Commission is confident it can establish a European Prosecutor’s Office among a small group of EU member states since only eleven countries have stated their opposition to the plans, including France and Britain.

The European Commission today (17 July) proposed establishing a European Prosecutor’s Office, in an attempt to improve the investigation and conviction of criminals who defraud the EU. British Conservatives immediately said they would opt out of the plan.

The leader of the European Parliament's largest political group, the European Peoples’ Party (EPP), said yesterday (11 June) the European Commission should “force” the resignation of the head of the EU anti-fraud office, OLAF, over his handling of the case against former commissioner John Dalli.

Giovanni Kessler, head of the EU's anti-fraud office OLAF, has come under fire from MEPs and NGOs alike, after a Maltese online newspaper published a leak of the agency's investigation into former EU commissioner John Dalli, who was forced to resign last year amid a tobacco lobbying scandal. OLAF said it had no comment to make.

The European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, has launched an investigation into allegations that €50,000 in rural development funding was due to be paid for opening and running a Facebook page and a Twitter account in Bulgaria, EURACTIV has learned.