Resumen de OLAF – 20 years of protecting the financial interests of the EU

Margarete Hofmann, Stanislav Stoykov

• In 2019, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) celebrated 20 years of existence. From today’s perspective, the Office could be qualified as one of the most recognisable Directorates-General of the European Commission. This is due to its unique powers, experience and the results achieved over the past twenty years. OLAF’s main mission is to investigate fraud against the EU budget, as well as serious misconduct within the European institutions, and to develop anti-fraud policy for the European Commission. For the time being, OLAF has concluded more than 5000 cases and recommended several billion euro be returned to the EU budget. In 2018 alone, OLAF opened 219 investigations after analysing incoming information in 1259 selections. It concluded 167 investigations, which led to OLAF issuing 256 recommendations to competent authorities at EU and national level.

  This article focuses on the processes that led to the establishment of OLAF, the results that the Office has achieved so far and the new challenges the Office will face in the near future, such as cooperation with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and new priorities for its investigative activities.