European Public Prosecutor’s Office 2024 Budget Review
Published April 29, 2026
Goal: Hold EU bodies accountable
Community improvement
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The European Parliament approved the EPPO’s 2024 budget, closed its accounts, and confirmed the office spent its money properly while calling for more staff, money, and better cooperation to fight EU financial crimes.
Document summary The source
Parliament's Decision on the EPPO
The European Parliament made the following decisions regarding the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) for 2024:
- Budget Approval: The Parliament granted "discharge," confirming that the EPPO spent its 2024 budget properly and that its accounts are reliable.
- Account Closure: The EPPO’s financial accounts for 2024 were formally closed.
- Publication: The decision will be published in the Official Journal of the EU.
EPPO Performance and Workload
The Parliament noted that the EPPO is the EU’s independent prosecutor for crimes that harm the Union’s finances, such as fraud and money laundering.
Key Achievements in 2024:
- Reports and Investigations: The EPPO received 6,547 crime reports and opened 2,666 investigations—both significantly higher than in 2023.
- Financial Impact: The estimated damage from these cases was €24.8 billion.
- Seized Funds: The EPPO secured €2.42 billion in freezing orders.
- Budget Use: The office spent 98.5% of its budget and paid 86% of its invoices on time.
Areas of Focus and Challenges
The Parliament highlighted several areas where the EPPO is growing but requires more support:
Staffing and Resources
- The EPPO has grown its staff to 258 employees.
- However, the office needs more staff and money to handle its increasing workload, especially related to the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
- The Parliament noted that the EPPO’s salaries are currently low, making it difficult to recruit and keep experienced prosecutors.
Operational Needs
- IT Systems: While the EPPO achieved IT autonomy, it still requires more resources to maintain its case-management system and cybersecurity.
- Member State Cooperation: The EPPO works with 24 Member States. The Parliament called for better cooperation from all Member States and urged action against any state that obstructs investigations.
- Fund Recovery: The EPPO can recover seized money, but the Parliament requested clearer rules so that these recovered amounts can be properly returned to the EU budget.
Future Work
- Ukraine: The EPPO is preparing for increased investigative work related to EU funds in Ukraine.
- Ethics: The EPPO is developing a full ethics framework, including policies for conflicts of interest and whistleblowing.
In summary, the Parliament confirmed that the EPPO is busy and increasingly important for protecting EU finances, but it stressed that the office needs more money, more staff, and better cooperation from Member States to remain effective.
Contextual Analysis
This is one of the alternative context analyses generated by ClaudeAI and rated 3 stars. Other AI versions:
Perplexity
Mistral
Broader context
The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) was created in 2017 and became operational in 2021. Before it existed, prosecuting fraud against the EU budget was left entirely to individual countries — which often had little motivation to pursue crimes that harmed the EU rather than their own treasury. The EPPO changed this by giving the EU its own independent prosecutor with real powers to investigate and bring cases to national courts.
The discharge procedure is an annual democratic check: the European Parliament reviews how each EU institution or body spent its budget and formally signs off (or refuses to sign off) on the accounts. It is the EU's main tool for financial accountability.
The EPPO currently covers 24 of the 27 EU member states. Hungary has chosen not to join, and Ireland has not yet done so. Denmark has a permanent opt-out from EU justice cooperation. This means that crimes committed in those countries that involve EU money can only be investigated by national prosecutors, with much weaker cross-border reach.
Impact on people living in the EU
EU money is your money. The EU budget is funded by member state contributions, which ultimately come from taxpayers. When fraudsters steal from it — through fake subsidy claims, VAT carousel schemes, or corrupt contracts — that reduces the resources available for public investment, regional development, and infrastructure.
The €24.8 billion in estimated damages from 2024 cases alone is larger than the entire annual GDP of some smaller EU member states.
What the EPPO does
What it means for you
Investigates VAT fraud
Recovers money lost through cross-border tax scams
Freezes criminal assets
Prevents fraudsters from hiding stolen funds
Works across borders
Criminals can no longer simply move to another country to escape prosecution
Monitors Recovery Fund spending
Helps ensure post-COVID reconstruction money reaches its intended purpose
The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) — the €800+ billion fund created to help EU economies recover after COVID-19 — is specifically mentioned as a growing area of EPPO work. Given the scale of that programme, protecting it from fraud is directly relevant to whether infrastructure, green energy, and digital projects in your country are properly delivered.
The EPPO's understaffing problem is worth noting: it requested 513 posts for 2025 but received only 307. This means some fraud cases may take longer to resolve or may not be pursued at all.
Impact on people outside the EU
The document specifically highlights Ukraine. The EU is channelling large amounts of reconstruction funding to Ukraine, and the EPPO has already signed cooperation agreements with Ukrainian prosecutors to monitor how that money is spent. For Ukrainians, this matters because it increases the chance that EU funds actually reach reconstruction projects rather than being diverted through corruption.
This is one of the alternative context analyses generated by ClaudeAI and rated 3 stars. Other AI versions:
Perplexity
Mistral
Broader context
The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) was created in 2017 and became operational in 2021. Before it existed, prosecuting fraud against the EU budget was left entirely to individual countries — which often had little motivation to pursue crimes that harmed the EU rather than their own treasury. The EPPO changed this by giving the EU its own independent prosecutor with real powers to investigate and bring cases to national courts.
The discharge procedure is an annual democratic check: the European Parliament reviews how each EU institution or body spent its budget and formally signs off (or refuses to sign off) on the accounts. It is the EU's main tool for financial accountability.
The EPPO currently covers 24 of the 27 EU member states. Hungary has chosen not to join, and Ireland has not yet done so. Denmark has a permanent opt-out from EU justice cooperation. This means that crimes committed in those countries that involve EU money can only be investigated by national prosecutors, with much weaker cross-border reach.
Impact on people living in the EU
EU money is your money. The EU budget is funded by member state contributions, which ultimately come from taxpayers. When fraudsters steal from it — through fake subsidy claims, VAT carousel schemes, or corrupt contracts — that reduces the resources available for public investment, regional development, and infrastructure.
The €24.8 billion in estimated damages from 2024 cases alone is larger than the entire annual GDP of some smaller EU member states.
| What the EPPO does | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Investigates VAT fraud | Recovers money lost through cross-border tax scams |
| Freezes criminal assets | Prevents fraudsters from hiding stolen funds |
| Works across borders | Criminals can no longer simply move to another country to escape prosecution |
| Monitors Recovery Fund spending | Helps ensure post-COVID reconstruction money reaches its intended purpose |
The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) — the €800+ billion fund created to help EU economies recover after COVID-19 — is specifically mentioned as a growing area of EPPO work. Given the scale of that programme, protecting it from fraud is directly relevant to whether infrastructure, green energy, and digital projects in your country are properly delivered.
The EPPO's understaffing problem is worth noting: it requested 513 posts for 2025 but received only 307. This means some fraud cases may take longer to resolve or may not be pursued at all.
Impact on people outside the EU
The document specifically highlights Ukraine. The EU is channelling large amounts of reconstruction funding to Ukraine, and the EPPO has already signed cooperation agreements with Ukrainian prosecutors to monitor how that money is spent. For Ukrainians, this matters because it increases the chance that EU funds actually reach reconstruction projects rather than being diverted through corruption.
Licensing: This article is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).