On 25 July 2025, the European Commission released the 36th Annual Report on the protection of the European Union’s financial interests and the fight against fraud – 2024. In line with the obligation laid down in Art. 325(5) TFEU, the report provides information on the measures taken for the protection of the EU's financial interests (PIF). The report includes information on the key measures taken at the EU and national levels, including cooperation measures between the EU and national level, and it provides data on irregularities, fraud, corruption and conflicts of interest detrimental to the EU budget. A focus of this year's report is laid on the digitalisation of the fight against fraud. Adapting anti-fraud measures to new technologies is also one of the key requests formulated by the European Parliament in its May 2025 resolution on the protection of the EU’s financial interests based on the 2023 PIF report.

As regards key measures taken at the EU level, the report highlights the cooperation of the main anti-fraud actors at the EU level and the Commission's implementation of the action plan accompanying the Commission anti-fraud strategy (CAFS). It also refers to the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA) as the newest actor in the EU anti-fraud architecture and the proposal for the establishment of an EU Customs Authority.

Looking at measures taken at the national level, the report states that there have not been significant developments in strengthening the governance of Member States' anti-fraud networks. Slight improvements were made with regard to national anti-fraud strategies: All Member States reported having anti-fraud strategies in place. However these strategies vary significantly in terms of scope and only 10 Member States have a fully-fledged national anti-fraud strategy in place, the report says. In 2024, a lot of anti-fraud measures focused on conflict of interest, public procurement and anti-fraud/anti-corruption strategy.

In the field of cooperation between the EU and national level, the PIF report highlights the Advisory Committee for the Coordination of Fraud Prevention (COCOLAF) and its sub-groups, managed by OLAF. A recurrent issue remains quality and reliability of available data on suspected fraud and follow-up of fraud detection. The report stresses that OLAF launched a structured dialogue with ten Member States to address identified issues in relation to fraud reporting.

With regard to the focal topic of digitalisation, the report mentions that several initiatives are ongoing, some supported also by the EU anti-fraud programme. Member States show a strong focus on building capacity and commitment to boost digitalisation.

Addressing key operational figures on PIF, the report states that the number of irregularities reported by the competent EU and national authorities slightly decreased in 2024 compared to 2023, while the number of reported cases of fraud increased by 26% compared to 2023. This increase may be explained by the impact of the reiterated recommendations to the Member States in the past years to better report detected fraud.

In conclusion, the report makes several recommendations to remedy weaknesses of PIF, such as:

• Closing the reporting gap in relation to suspected fraud and irregularities;
• Establishing more effective communication channels;
• Adopting/Improving the national anti-fraud strategy;
• Embedding the digitalisation of the fight against fraud in national anti-fraud strategies.

The findings of the annual PIF report also feeds the review of the anti-fraud architecture that was launched a few days before by means of a White Paper (→ separate news item).

As in the previous years, the annual report on the protection of the EU’s financial interests is accompanied by several other documents and annexes addressing specific issues of the PIF report in more detail. For the 2023 PIF report → eucrim 2/2024, 108-109.