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 his first annual report since taking office, highlighting that the agency 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 attributed to AI tools, and reported 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 European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO). No formal decisions were taken; the exchange served as input for the committee's own-initiative report on anti-fraud architecture.
Stakeholders affected include EU institutions, member states, customs authorities, e-commerce operators, and beneficiaries of EU funds. The discussion underscored the tension between leveraging AI and private data for fraud detection and ensuring procedural guarantees and data protection.