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On 9 January 2020, GRECO published its fifth round evaluation report on France. The focus of this evaluation round is on preventing corruption and promoting integrity in central governments (top executive functions) and law enforcement agencies. The evaluation focuses particularly on such issues as …

On 16 April 2020, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) published the results of an audit on implementation of the EU's Cohesion Policy Funds (Special Report No 07/2020). There are, however, deficiencies in the completeness, coherence, and consistency of the collected data.

In a declaration of 30 April 2020, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borell, condemned malicious cyber activities targeting essential operators in Member States and their international partners, including those in the healthcare sector.

The compilation of the College of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has been delayed. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the selection panel could not meet in March 2020; therefore, the appointment of recently nominated European Prosecutors had to be postponed. Initially, it was envisaged that …

On 30 April 2020, OLAF informed the public that it had successfully concluded two internal investigations against MEPs and their staff. The investigations were launched in 2017/2018 after allegations that money from salaries was being transferred to the national political parties. This is not allowed under the rules of the EP.

Italy’s Guardia di Finanza successfully broke up a tobacco smuggling ring in May 2020. After OLAF’s tip-off, the Italian authorities raided the port of Salerno and led an investigation against 69 persons. They uncovered two consignments of smuggled tobacco that were being shipped from the …

On 5 May 2020, OLAF reported the successful discovery of a fraud scheme set up by a Greek researcher. The researcher pretended to involve over 40 international researchers in a research project funded by the European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA) with a grant …

OLAF investigations dismantled a fraud scheme by a consortium that had received EU money to carry out environmental research. Apparently, the beneficiaries had neither the capacity nor the intention to carry out the environmental research project. Instead, the major share of the EU grant (€400,000) was pumped into a casino/hotel in Cyprus.

On 7 April 2020, OLAF informed the public that it is still fully operational and committed to fighting fraud during the Coronavirus crisis.

In April 2020, OLAF and the World Customs Organization (WCO) improved the sharing of information. Both anti-fraud bodies interconnected their databases with regard to tobacco smuggling.