The European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) held an exchange of views on 2 June 2026 on the OLAF Annual Report 2025, the OLAF Supervisory Committee report, and the report of the procedural guarantees controller. OLAF Director General Petr Klement presented the first annual report under his tenure, highlighting that OLAF recommended recovery of nearly €600 million in misused EU funds and prevented almost €1 billion in customs and import VAT losses. He noted a record number of information inputs (nearly 5,000), partly due to AI, and that OLAF closed 209 investigations, opened 254 new ones, and issued 216 recommendations. Klement stressed the need for full access to the EU Customs Data Hub and called for stronger anti-fraud clauses in trade agreements. He also flagged a rise in ethics-related internal investigations and sanctions evasion cases linked to Russia.
Standing rapporteur Dick Erixon (ECR) praised the report's detail but questioned how OLAF manages the surge in private-source information, whether current access to logistics and e-commerce data is sufficient for real-time fraud detection, and how OLAF's AI tools can be further leveraged. The exchange touched on the ongoing anti-fraud architecture review and the need for better cooperation with the EPPO. No formal decisions were taken; the exchange served as input for the committee's own-initiative report on anti-fraud architecture.
The recommendations affect EU institutions and member states, which would need to implement stronger anti-fraud measures and improve data-sharing. Customs authorities and e-commerce operators face potential new compliance obligations if OLAF gains broader access to logistics and e-commerce data. Beneficiaries of EU funds may see tighter scrutiny and faster recovery of misused funds. The call for stronger anti-fraud clauses in trade agreements could affect third-country trading partners, adding conditions to market access.