On 28 July 2026, the European Commission published a statistical evaluation of irregularities reported for 2025 across EU spending areas, accompanying the 37th Annual Report on protecting EU financial interests and fighting fraud. The document, prepared by OLAF, reveals that fraud amounts remain significant, with EUR 824.7 million in traditional own resources (TOR) and EUR 132 million in fraudulent amounts under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2021-2025, while recovery rates for fraudulent TOR cases stand at only 28%.
The report covers own resources, agriculture, cohesion and fisheries policies, pre-accession and direct expenditure. In TOR, 4,390 cases were reported in 2025, 13% below the 2021-2025 average of 5,042, but the total amount of EUR 824.7 million is 26% above the EUR 656 million average. Of these, 285 cases were classified as fraudulent, involving EUR 85.4 million. The overall recovery rate for TOR is 77%, but for fraudulent cases it drops to 28%, while non-fraudulent cases achieve 82%. The historical recovery rate now stands at 86%.
For CAP, fraudulent financial amounts for 2021-2025 total EUR 132 million. Only 20% of fraudulent irregularities in support to agriculture and 5% in rural development concerned CAP Strategic Plan expenditure (2024-2025). Most fraud prevention involved cases under EUR 100,000. For 2015-2025 closed cases, recovery exceeds 75% in rural development, but about 90% of fraudulent irregularities with amounts to recover remain open.
Under cohesion and fisheries policies, EU funding granted to operations affected by fraud from 2021-2025 amounts to EUR 7.6 billion, with EUR 0.9 billion fraudulent amounts. The report warns of risks of persistent funding to fraudsters, warranting targeted controls. Pre-accession and direct expenditure are analysed in detail, including IPA II (2014-2020), IPA III (2021-2027), cross-border cooperation under ENI, and the Ukraine Facility.
Detection methods show that anti-fraud services detected 37% of fraudulent TOR cases (74% of amounts), while post-release controls detected 51% of non-fraudulent cases (75% of amounts). Risk analysis, tips, and media contributed marginally to fraud detection in CAP. The report includes country factsheets for all 27 EU Member States. For TOR, Lithuania (16) and Estonia (15) reported the highest cigarette smuggling cases, while Italy reported the highest amount (EUR 3.3 million). For CAP, fraud detection is concentrated in a few Member States not justified by payment levels.
low recovery rates for fraudulent TOR cases, a high proportion of open CAP fraud cases, and heavy reliance on routine controls rather than risk analysis. The report calls for improved controls, especially for environmental payments, and targeted measures to prevent funding from reaching fraudsters.
EU taxpayers face continued losses from fraud, with low recovery rates reducing the effectiveness of anti-fraud efforts. National authorities in Member States with high fraud detection may need to strengthen controls, while those with low detection may face pressure to improve. EU producers in agriculture and cohesion sectors could be affected by tighter controls and potential funding suspensions. OLAF and the Commission will likely use the findings to push for enhanced fraud prevention measures and better recovery mechanisms.