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This article outlines the framework of the European Community’s primary and secondary law regarding the protection of its financial interests. It starts in part I with an historical review ranging from the first attempts of the Commission to harmonise the criminal law of the Member States with regards to the fight against fraud detrimental to the EC budget, the development of the Anti-Fraud Coordination Unit (UCLAF) and the embedding of the financial interests in the Maastricht Treaty. The article continues with a presentation of the existing legal framework for the protection of the EC’s financial interests in part II. First,…

The article aims at pointing out the fundamental contributions made by the area of the protection of the financial interests (PFI) of the European Community to the establishment and development of a criminal law system of the European Union; a contribution which still continues.
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The European Union faces ongoing challenges in safeguarding its financial interests. The research project 2024-IT-PIF aims to conduct a thorough examination of key issues related to such challenges. This news item summarises the objectives of the project and points out first achieved results.

This news item summarises the annual OLAF activity report for the year 2025. Presented on 20 April 2026, the report presents the key figures of OLAF's work in 2025. For the first time, it includes recommendations to stakeholders designed to foster a more effective and coordinated approach to combating fraud and irregularities.

This news item highlights key cases that demonstrate OLAF's operational work between 15 January and 30 June 2026. It follows on from the report in eucrim 4/2025, 266.

On 25 February 2026, OLAF and Europol informed of the results of the joint law enforcement operation SHIELD VI. Now in its sixth year, this operation resulted in the prosecution of over 3,350 individuals, and the seizure of illicit medicines and doping substances worth …

This seminar will focus on alternatives to detention, also within the context of the European Arrest Warrant, as well as issues surrounding the proper use of Framework Decision 2008/947/JHA on probation and alternative sanctions and Framework Decision 2009/829/JHA on supervision measures as an alternative to provisional detention.

OLAF is the only Community body whose tasks include administrative investigations on behaviour detrimental to the financial interests of the EU that may have “criminal” and “trans-national” aspects simultaneously. Trans-national European crime requires new solutions to be found in what is commonly referred to as European criminal law. For this reason the protection of financial interests has been the motor of the emerging European criminal law and continues to play a vital role.1 Even before the existence of OLAF, its predecessor, the unit charged with the protection of the financial interests within the Commission (UCLAF), put forward first instruments on…

The German Federal Constitutional Court was asked to decide upon the constitutional compatibility of the changes foreseen by the Treaty of Lisbon and its implementation via various acts of legislation by the German parliamentary organs.1 Above all, the complainants (inter alia, a number of Members of the German Bundestag and the parliamentary group “DIE LINKE”) argued for constitutional breaches because, in their view, the federal government delegated powers to the EU that it was not competent to do and to such an extent as to undermine the authority of the Federal parliamentary organs (the Bundestag and the Bundesrat). The Constitutional…