The European Parliament's rapporteur on giving the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) and the EU anti-fraud office OLAF access to Union-level VAT data, the EPP's Michalis Hadjipantela, is proposing to add strict privacy and accountability safeguards to the planned regime. In the report he is steering, dated 15 June 2026, he sets out 47 amendments that keep the goal of fighting cross-border VAT fraud while sharply narrowing how the data may be used. The amendments are a proposal still to be put to a plenary vote.
Several would restrict EPPO's centralised access to active investigations of suspected offences within its mandate, and confine OLAF to what is strictly necessary for its own remit - wording designed to rule out generalised data-mining. Others would require every query to be logged and tied to a named investigation and authorised user, and would oblige EPPO to publish annual figures on how often the system is used and how often it helps move a case forward.
The amendments would also widen the data in scope, extending the customs records investigators can reach to all imports claiming a VAT exemption, deferral or special accounting scheme, and spelling out the categories - from VAT identification numbers to intra-community transactions - that may be consulted. One would strike out the clause loading the full cost of the new IT system onto EPPO, leaving the funding to be negotiated between the EU budget and member states. Another would require the Commission to return within 18 months with a plan to harmonise minimum criminal penalties for VAT fraud.
The package trades investigative reach against privacy and accountability. National prosecutors and anti-fraud investigators would gain a firmer legal basis and broader customs data, but also new logging, reporting and confidentiality duties; data-protection authorities would gain the oversight they have long pressed for; and member states face an open question over who pays for the supporting systems. The proposals now head to the full Parliament for a vote, which would set Parliament's position for negotiations with the Council.
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