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October 12, 2026

Newsletter

The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • strategic insight

LATEST
Social Security Coordination Reform Clears The Council After A DecadeCreative Europe 2027 Budget Sets €402 Million For Final YearNature Restoration Plans Reach Brussels As Review Clock StartsBerlin Sudan Aid Pledges Now Face A Delivery TestLebanon Tranche Ties EU Support For Lebanon To Reform GoalsLeaving The Parental Home Now Takes Until 26.3 Across The EUDigital Fairness Act Targets Dark Patterns Before Q4 DraftSatellite Operators Await The EU Space Act TriloguesCeuta Crisis Hangs Over Leaders Debate On Irregular Border CrossingsTen Warships Needed For Operation Aspides As Foreign Ministers MeetAmbassadors Weigh Digital Omnibus Cookie Rules On Sunday VoteHousing Exclusion Recommendation Heads To MinistersCapital Markets Supervision Package Wins A Council PositionPanama And Viet Nam Exit The EU Tax Blacklist In ReviewSixteen Capitals Run Late On The Consumer Credit Directive DeadlineBuilding Renovation Plans Leave Nine Capitals Facing EU Legal ActionEU-China Hybrid Car Deal Leaves Leaders To Judge Beijing’s OfferSwitzerland-EU Treaty Package Faces A Cantonal Majority Test In 2027Hybrid Threats Draw The EU Partnership Mission In ArmeniaFarm Quotas Hinge On The EU-Mercosur Interim Trade AgreementSocial Security Coordination Reform Clears The Council After A DecadeCreative Europe 2027 Budget Sets €402 Million For Final YearNature Restoration Plans Reach Brussels As Review Clock StartsBerlin Sudan Aid Pledges Now Face A Delivery TestLebanon Tranche Ties EU Support For Lebanon To Reform GoalsLeaving The Parental Home Now Takes Until 26.3 Across The EUDigital Fairness Act Targets Dark Patterns Before Q4 DraftSatellite Operators Await The EU Space Act TriloguesCeuta Crisis Hangs Over Leaders Debate On Irregular Border CrossingsTen Warships Needed For Operation Aspides As Foreign Ministers MeetAmbassadors Weigh Digital Omnibus Cookie Rules On Sunday VoteHousing Exclusion Recommendation Heads To MinistersCapital Markets Supervision Package Wins A Council PositionPanama And Viet Nam Exit The EU Tax Blacklist In ReviewSixteen Capitals Run Late On The Consumer Credit Directive DeadlineBuilding Renovation Plans Leave Nine Capitals Facing EU Legal ActionEU-China Hybrid Car Deal Leaves Leaders To Judge Beijing’s OfferSwitzerland-EU Treaty Package Faces A Cantonal Majority Test In 2027Hybrid Threats Draw The EU Partnership Mission In ArmeniaFarm Quotas Hinge On The EU-Mercosur Interim Trade Agreement

EU Budget Fraud Protection Falls To National Services, OLAF Warns

Jim Belushi
Member State Correspondent, Anti-Fraud (OLAF)

The Hague: EU budget fraud protection is about to change hands, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) warned on 7 October 2026 at a Brussels conference of more than 120 national experts preparing for the next long-term EU budget. OLAF Director-General Petr Klement told the audience that the Commission’s proposal for the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework “is a game changer”.

The conference ran on 6 and 7 October and brought together the national anti-fraud coordination services, known as AFCOS, from EU member states and enlargement countries. Professionals from 36 European countries took part, alongside experts from OLAF, the Commission and the European Court of Auditors. OLAF reported on the event in a news item published on 8 October.

Klement described the proposed budget as simpler and more flexible, but he stressed that it shifts responsibility from the European level to the national level. Member states will play a bigger role in preventing and managing fraud risks. That puts the coordination services “at the front line” of EU budget fraud protection, in OLAF’s words, and OLAF says it will keep working alongside them.

The shift follows from the design of the new budget. The Commission wants more performance-based funding, where payments depend on results instead of receipts for individual costs. National authorities will therefore decide how to detect and tackle irregularities, and the quality of their checks will determine how strong EU budget fraud protection proves in practice.

Participants spent much of the two days on a stubborn problem: the coordination services differ widely in size, capacity and powers. OLAF wants to “level up” the weaker services so that EU budget fraud protection does not depend on the member state where a project happens to sit. Breakout sessions covered performance-based instruments, enlargement, national anti-fraud strategies and cooperation with financial intelligence units.

Access to information and digital readiness ran through every discussion of EU budget fraud protection. Investigators need timely data from tax, customs and banking authorities, and they need tools that cope with cross-border schemes. OLAF also wants continued dialogue with anti-fraud authorities in countries that prepare for EU membership, because candidate countries will manage EU money before they join.

The conference followed another OLAF event a week earlier. On 1 and 2 October, OLAF and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted InvestigAid 2026 in The Hague under the title “Too Complex to Control? Rethinking Anti-Fraud Investigations in the Cyber Age”. More than 60 experts discussed artificial intelligence in investigations, cybercrime and corruption in foreign aid, and whistleblower protection.

The background explains the urgency. OLAF investigates fraud against the EU budget, corruption and serious misconduct in the institutions, and it recommends that the Commission recover money. Its 2025 report put the sum to be recovered after its recommendations at €597 million. A budget that hands more control to national administrations raises the stakes for every audit trail.

In my assessment, the message from Brussels is clear and a little uncomfortable. The EU can design a leaner budget, yet it cannot police every payment from the centre, and national services must now carry that task. The next 12 months of negotiation will show whether governments fund their coordination services accordingly, because EU budget fraud protection will only be as strong as its weakest national link.

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