EPPO Annual Report 2021

2529-346X
2021
ANNUAL
REPORT
EUROPEAN
PUBLIC
PROSECUTOR’S
OFFICE
EPPO 2021 Annual Report
Luxembourg: European Public Prosecutor’s Office, 2022
© European Public Prosecutor’s Office, 2022
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PDF: ISBN: 978-92-95226-02-9 ISSN: 2529-346X DOI: 10.2927/34796 KJ-NA-29-797-EN-N
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www.eppo.europa.eu
Contents
Foreword................................................................................................................................................................ 4
List of abbreviations............................................................................................................................................ 6
Section 1: General aspects.................................................................................................................................. 7
Organisation and functioning ............................................................................................................... 8
Section 2: Operational activity.......................................................................................................................... 9
Overview.................................................................................................................................................. 10
Central Office........................................................................................................................................... 12
Member States........................................................................................................................................ 14
Typologies identified in our cases....................................................................................................... 58
Recovery of the proceeds of criminal activity................................................................................... 62
Section 3: Activity of the College.................................................................................................................... 63
Section 4: Activity of the Permanent Chambers........................................................................................... 65
Section 5: Activity of the Operations and College Support Unit............................................................... 69
Section 6: Case Management System and IT................................................................................................. 73
Section 7: Human resources and staff development................................................................................... 75
Section 8: Financial resources and their management............................................................................... 79
Section 9: Transparency and relations with the general public and the press....................................... 81
Section 10: Activity of the Legal Service........................................................................................................ 83
Section 11: Data protection.............................................................................................................................. 85
Section 12: Relations of the EPPO with its partners.................................................................................... 87
Notes..................................................................................................................................................................... 92
FOREWORD
On 4 November 2019, as I effectively took up my
duties as first European Chief Prosecutor, the
European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) had 3
members of staff, and relied heavily on a small task
force of European Commission and OLAF officials.
Our budget for 2020, when we were expected to
start operations, would have allowed us to have
only 24 EPPO staff, and to pay the remunerations
of 32.25 European Delegated Prosecutors. This was
our starting point.
With a budget set at €44.9 million for 2021, allow-

ing us to have 130 EPPO staff, and to pay the
remunerations of up to 140 European Delegated
work full time for the EPPO, if we want to comply
Prosecutors, the start of operations became con-
with the highest standards of judicial independ-
ceivable. However, a lot still needed to be done,
ence and efficiency.
very fast, by very few, extremely dedicated and
motivated people. The participating Member States had to make not
only complex and extensive legislative adaptations,
The Council of the European Union appointed the 22
but also significant organisational and financial
European Prosecutors on 27 July 2020. The College
efforts to allow us to operate. The EPPO budget is
of the EPPO was constituted on 28 September 2020.
only a part of the overall cost of the EPPO. National
Its initial focus was on adopting all the decisions
authorities cover the essential part of the costs of
allowing the EPPO to become operational as soon as
our decentralised offices, while Luxembourg also
possible, and to function administratively on at least
provided us with our Central Office building free
a basic level. Two decisions were of utmost impor-
of charge.
tance in this respect: the Conditions of Employment
of the European Delegated Prosecutors1, allowing Finally, we needed to select, recruit, onboard and
the launch of the selection procedures of the can- train the whole Office, basically, in only a few
didates in the participating Member States, and the months, and to put everybody immediately to work.
Internal Rules of Procedure2, organising the work of This in the specific context of the highly compet-
the EPPO. itive Luxembourg job market, combined with the
Covid-19 pandemic.
The other prerequisite was the speedy development
and successful go live of the Case Management We did all of this, and much more, and started
System. This was truly an extraordinary achieve- operations on 1 June 2021.
ment of an outstanding project team set up only in
As we made the decision to declare ourselves ready
March 2020.
to start to the European Commission, history will
We also needed to have European Delegated Pros- remember that European Delegated Prosecutors
ecutors in all the participating Member States, not were missing in Slovenia. At that moment it became
only appointed, but ready to work for the EPPO. It clear that after the euro zone, we have created an
took a lot of convincing in some Member States EPPO zone, and that there was a gap in it, which had
that European Delegated Prosecutors will have to potentially far-reaching consequences.
4 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Foreword

It became manifest that any interference with our adjust their expectations, to solve numerous techni-
activities in a given participating Member State not cal issues. Together, we are identifying shortcomings
only affects EPPO investigations in that Member and analysing all the challenges that come up.
State, but also all cross-border investigations ini-
Our operational objectives remain:
tiated by the EPPO in other participating Member
States that involve that Member State. • Improved overall investigation rates of offences
affecting the EU’s financial interests, especially in
We are a systemic part of the overall architecture put
cross-border investigations targeting organised
in place by the EU to protect its financial interests.
criminal groups;
We are covering both sides: expenditures as well as
revenues. If we are hindered in the exercise of our • Improved recovery of illicit assets obtained via
competence, the protection of the EU budget is at offences affecting the EU’s financial interests.
stake. This new reality is also reflected in the role
The EPPO will continue to strengthen its capacity
granted to the EPPO in Regulation (EU) 2020/2092
to carry out independent, impartial, high quality
of 16 December 2020 on a general regime of condi-
investigations and prosecutions with the aim of
tionality for the protection of the Union budget.
achieving high rates of success in court, while
In the first seven months of operations, we processed respecting all the fundamental rights enshrined in
2832 crime reports and opened 576 investigations. the Charter.
By the year’s end, we had 515 active investigations
The EPPO will continue to develop an adequate
for overall estimated damages close to €5.4 billion.
operational capacity at the central level, in order to
As the EPPO requested that €154.3 million be seized,
assist and complement asset recovery measures and
and the seizure of €147 million was granted, there
financial investigations carried out by the European
could be no more doubt about our added value.
Delegated Prosecutors at national level.
More importantly, law enforcement actors across
The EPPO will continue its efforts to establish strong
the EU started to discover the speed, efficiency and
relationships with non-participating Member States,
information gains they can expect when working
and also with the relevant authorities of third coun-
with the EPPO, compared to traditional mutual legal
tries of particular interest in the investigation and
assistance modalities and cross-border coordination
prosecution of cross-border cases falling within its
methods.
competence, as well as in damage recovery.
In the coming year, we will be able to step up our
The EPPO will continue to reinforce its administra-
cooperation with all the relevant authorities, at
tive framework and stabilise the working conditions
national as well as European level. Our message is
and career perspectives of its staff.
simple: improving the level of protection of the
financial interests of the EU starts with increasing the Finally, the EPPO will continue to analyse the expe-
level of detection of EU fraud. Differences between rience gathered, in particular to identify issues ham-
Member States in this regard have been significant pering the accomplishment of its mission that would
for a long time, and I also count on OLAF’s contribu- need to be addressed by way of legislative changes,
tion to what clearly needs to be a joint effort. be it at national or European level.
There is no doubt that the operational start of the

EPPO brings about many changes not only in the
participating Member States, but also in the EU insti-
tutions, bodies, offices and agencies.
It will take time for people to get to know each Laura Kövesi,
other’s roles, responsibilities and powers precisely, to European Chief Prosecutor
5 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Foreword

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
EU Member States Other
AT Austria CMS: Case Management System
BE Belgium CNA: Competent national authority

BG Bulgaria ECR: EPPO Crime Report
HR Croatia
EDP: European Delegated Prosecutor
CY Cyprus
EP: European Prosecutor
CZ Czechia
DK Denmark IBOAs: Institutions, bodies, offices and agencies
EE Estonia MS: Member State

FI Finland NA: National authority
FR France
NEDPA: National European Delegated Prosecutor’s
DE Germany Assistant
EL Greece
OLAF: European Anti-Fraud Office
HU Hungary
PCs: Permanent Chambers [of the EPPO]
IE Ireland
IT Italy PIF: Protection of the financial interests
(Protection des intérêts financiers)
LV Latvia
LT Lithuania VAT: Value added tax
LU Luxembourg
MT Malta
NL Netherlands
PL Poland
PT Portugal
RO Romania
SK Slovakia
SI Slovenia
ES Spain
SE Sweden
6 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 List of abbreviations

1
General aspects
Organisation and functioning
The role of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office Chambers (in charge of taking key decisions in each
(EPPO) is to improve the level of protection of the of the investigations).
financial interests of the European Union (EU). We
Active members of the judiciary in their respective
investigate fraud involving EU funds of over €10 000
national systems, the European Delegated Prosecu-
and cross-border Value Added Tax (VAT) fraud involv-
tors investigate and prosecute according to national
ing damages above €10 million. Any such fraud
criminal laws and national procedural criminal laws.
committed in the participating Member States after
They bring their cases to judgment before national
November 2017 falls within our jurisdiction.
tribunals. We are operating under 22 different crim-
We are independent from national governments, inal procedural law regimes. We are using different
the European Commission, and other European equipment, technologies, working methods and
institutions, bodies, and agencies. Together with the languages. This has never been attempted before.
European Court of Justice, the EPPO represents the
We are a specialised prosecution office with a man-
justice pillar of the EU. We speak and act on behalf of
datory competence. This means that we do not have
the European public interest.
discretion to investigate only a few significant cases.
We operate as a single office with a decentralised Whenever we are competent, national authorities
structure. With headquarters in Luxembourg, the have a legal obligation to stand down and let the
EPPO has 35 offices in the participating Member EPPO do its work.
States. In practice, 22 European Prosecutors and the
The EPPO is not an addition, a new layer to improve
European Chief Prosecutor in Luxembourg oversee
the coordination of national authorities. As an EU
investigations initiated by the European Delegated
body embedded in the national judiciaries, we are
Prosecutors in the participating Member States. In
a systemic component of the rule of law in the EU.
the first phase of our operational deployment, we
This is why changes affecting the judiciary of a par-
intend to appoint up to 140 European Delegated
ticipating Member State directly affect the EPPO.
Prosecutors. 94 were active in 2021.
Developments affecting the EPPO’s independence or
Embedded in the national judiciaries, the European efficiency in one of the participating Member States
Delegated Prosecutors remain independent from have a direct effect on the entire EPPO zone. Failure
national governments and national judicial author- to cooperate with the EPPO by non-participating
ities. They must have at least the same powers and Member States has a direct effect on the overall level
conditions of work as national prosecutors. They can of protection of the financial interests of the EU. In
only be given direction with regard to their opera- line with recital 16 of Regulation (EU) 2020/2092
tional work by the EPPO headquarters, either via of 16 December 2020 on a general regime of con-
the College of the EPPO (in charge of defining the ditionality for the protection of the Union Budget,
overall prosecutorial policy and the general frame- the EPPO is to report such developments to the
work for their work), or via one of the 15 Permanent European Commission.
8 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 1: General aspects: Organisation and functioning
2
Operational activity
OVERVIEW
In all the participating Member States, our prose-
cutors have the same priorities and implement the
same prosecutorial policy, as defined by the College
of the EPPO. We focus on complex, cross-border
investigations into sophisticated economic and
financial criminality, in particular where serious
organised criminality is involved. Our main objective
is to help the Member States recover the damages.
The EPPO started operations on 1 June 2021. Within

seven months, we processed a fair part of the
backlog of cases opened by national authorities
before we became operational, the whole backlog
of OLAF investigations and dealt with all the new
reports about suspicions of fraud coming from all
possible sources. In total, we have received 2832
reports and opened 576 investigations, in which the
Beyond all the possible objective explanations, the
damage caused to the EU budget was estimated at
observed discrepancies point at the necessity to
€5.4 billion.
systematically step up efforts in this regard. This
By 31 December 2021 we had 515 active investiga- should also mean a consistent recalibration of the
tions: role that Europol, OLAF and Eurojust can play in the
fight against fraud affecting the financial interests of
• 17.6% of them were into VAT fraud, for estimated
the EU.
damages of €2.5 billion.
Finally, the first seven months of operations also
• 27.5% of them had a cross-border dimension
amply demonstrated that the EPPO brings a decisive
(acts either committed on the territory of several
advantage to law enforcement in cross-border inves-
countries, or which caused damage to several
tigations. Without cumbersome mutual legal assis-
countries).
tance formalities, organising coordinated searches
After seven months of operations, it has become or arrests across borders has been a matter of weeks,
clear that the level of detection of fraud affecting instead of months. Unprecedented access to oper-
the financial interests of the EU is suboptimal and ational information through its Case Management
varies significantly from Member State to Member System allowed the EPPO to establish connections
State. This is particularly visible on the revenue between different investigations (and subsequently
side of the EU budget, with several Member States merge them), to identify more evidence to be
failing to detect any serious VAT fraud, as well as secured and assets to be seized. In the first seven
surprisingly low numbers of reports concerning months, European Delegated Prosecutors assigned
customs fraud. altogether 290 assisting measures to each other.
10 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Overview
120
120
115 Opened investigations
110 Cross-border investigations

105
105
100
95
90
85
80
75
70
65
60
60 58
55
50
45
45
39
40
40
35
31
32
30
26
25
20 18
15 16 14
13
10 9 9 9
8
6 8
5 4 4 6
4
3 5 3
4 0 4 4
3 1 0
2 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0
0
AT BE BG HR CY CZ EE FI FR DE EL IT LV LT LU MT NL PT RO SK SI ES
TOTAL: 576
11 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Overview
CENTRAL OFFICE
DATA VALID ON 31 DECEMBER 2021
Active investigations Estimated total damages Estimated damages in VAT fraud
investigations
€5.4 billion €2.5 billion

515
Indictments Seizures Assisting measures assigned to

EDPs3
€147.3 million
5 290
Received reports/complaints Opened investigations

From national authorities 1351 Initiate investigation
298
From EU institutions, bodies, organisations and agencies 190 (new case)
From private parties 1282 Evoke investigation

278
Ex officio 9 (old case)
TOTAL 2832 TOTAL 576
Exercise of competence
Decision pending 84
Decision to exercise competence 570
Decision not to exercise competence 956
Referral to national authorities (where competence was exercised) 31
Dismissed cases4
Death or winding up 0
Insanity 0 Luxembourg City
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
Expiry of statutory limitation to prosecute 0
Case has already been finally disposed of 0
Lack of relevant evidence 3
TOTAL 3
12 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Central Office
Judicial activity in criminal cases
Ongoing cases in the trial phase 5
Cases where simplified prosecution procedures were applied 3
Number of first court decisions 0
Number of appeals against first court decisions 0
Number of ongoing cases in the appeal phase 0
Number of final court decisions 1
Number of extraordinary legal remedies against court decisions 0
Convictions 1
Acquittals 0
Confiscations €22 000
Typologies identified in EPPO cases

Number of investigated offences broken down by type
Non-procurement expenditure fraud 313
Procurement expenditure fraud 110
Non-VAT revenue fraud 132
VAT revenue fraud 173
Participation in a PIF-focused criminal organisation 30
Corruption 40
Misappropriation 34
Money laundering 47
Inextricably linked offence 104
Cross-border investigations 142
13 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Central Office
AUSTRIA
investigations
€392 million 0
3
EDPs
0
0
Outgoing: 0
Incoming: 13

3

1
TOTAL 12 TOTAL 4
Decision pending 0 European Delegated Prosecutors
Decision to exercise competence 4 (active): 2
Dismissed cases
Vienna
Insanity 0 Graz
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
Lack of relevant evidence 0 National European Delegated
Prosecutors’ Assistants: 2
TOTAL 0
14 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Austria
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 0
Corruption 0
Misappropriation 0
Money laundering 0
15 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Austria
BELGIUM
investigations
€324 million €233.3 million

26
EDPs
€1.1 million
0
Outgoing: 4
Incoming: 20

18

8
TOTAL 58 TOTAL 26
Dismissed cases
Brussels
Insanity 0
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
16 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Belgium
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 4
Corruption 1
Misappropriation 5
Money laundering 0
17 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Belgium
BULGARIA
investigations
€427 million €3.4 million

98
EDPs
0
1
Outgoing: 0
Incoming: 17

49

56
TOTAL 273 TOTAL 105
Dismissed cases
Insanity 0 Sofia
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 1
18 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Bulgaria
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 1
Corruption 14
Misappropriation 6
Money laundering 3
19 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Bulgaria
CROATIA
investigations
€30.6 million 0
8
EDPs
€270 000
0
Outgoing: 0
Incoming: 4

6

3
TOTAL 28 TOTAL 9
Dismissed cases Zagreb

Insanity 0
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
20 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Croatia
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 0
Corruption 7
Misappropriation 2
Money laundering 0
Cross-border with third country involvement 0
21 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Croatia
CYPRUS
investigations
€1.5 million 0
3
EDPs
0
0
Outgoing: 0
Incoming: 8

2

1
TOTAL 5 TOTAL 3
Dismissed cases
Insanity 0 Nicosia
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
22 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Cyprus
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 0
Corruption 1
Misappropriation 1
Money laundering 0
23 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Cyprus
CZECHIA
investigations
€78.8 million €37.5 million

34
EDPs
€37.5 million
0
Outgoing: 4
Incoming: 23

17

22
TOTAL 83 TOTAL 39

Liberec
Dismissed cases
Death or winding up 0 Prague
Zlín
Insanity 0 Brno
Amnesty 0
České Budějovice
Immunity 0
TOTAL 1
24 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Czechia
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 5
Corruption 2
Misappropriation 0
Money laundering 2
25 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Czechia
ESTONIA
investigations
€5.5 million 0
6
EDPs
0
0
Outgoing: 3
Incoming: 17

2

4
TOTAL 10 TOTAL 6
Dismissed cases Tallinn

Insanity 0
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
26 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Estonia
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 0
Corruption 0
Misappropriation 1
Money laundering 0
27 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Estonia
FINLAND
investigations
€732 492 0
4
EDPs
€528 542
0
Outgoing: 0
Incoming: 5

0

4
TOTAL 7 TOTAL 4
Dismissed cases
Insanity 0
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
Helsinki
TOTAL 0
28 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Finland
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 0
Corruption 0
Misappropriation 0
Money laundering 0
29 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Finland
FRANCE
investigations

29
EDPs
0
0
Outgoing: 11
Incoming: 13

29

2
TOTAL 48 TOTAL 31

Paris
Dismissed cases
Insanity 0
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
30 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: France
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 3
Corruption 0
Misappropriation 4
Money laundering 4
31 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: France
GERMANY
investigations

54
EDPs
€58.5 million
2
Outgoing: 158
Incoming: 11

17

41
TOTAL 93 TOTAL 58
Referral to national authorities (where competence was exercised) 1 Hamburg
Dismissed cases Berlin
Cologne
Insanity 0
Amnesty 0
Frankfurt
Immunity 0
Munich
TOTAL 0
32 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Germany
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

Corruption 0
Misappropriation 1
Money laundering 28
33 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Germany
GREECE
investigations
€42.9 million 0
17
EDPs
0
0
Outgoing: 1
Incoming: 2

10

8
TOTAL 39 TOTAL 18
Dismissed cases
Insanity 0
Athens
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
34 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Greece
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 0
Corruption 3
Misappropriation 2
Money laundering 1
35 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Greece
ITALY
investigations
€1.7 billion €1.3 billion

102

EDPs
€40 million
1
Outgoing: 73
Incoming: 34

66

54
TOTAL 262 TOTAL 120

Milan Venice
Turin
Dismissed cases Bologna
Rome
Insanity 0
Naples
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
Palermo
TOTAL 1
36 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Italy
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

Corruption 5
Misappropriation 3
Money laundering 3
37 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Italy
LATVIA
investigations

8
EDPs
€10 906
0
Outgoing: 6
Incoming: 7

5

3
TOTAL 49 TOTAL 8
Dismissed cases
Death or winding up 0 Riga
Insanity 0
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
38 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Latvia
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations €22 000

VAT revenue fraud 1
Corruption 0
Misappropriation 0
Money laundering 0
39 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Latvia
LITHUANIA
investigations
€31.6 million 0
13
EDPs
€2.9 million
1
Outgoing: 3
Incoming: 7

2

12
TOTAL 29 TOTAL 14
Dismissed cases5
Insanity 0 Vilnius
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
40 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Lithuania
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 0
Corruption 2
Misappropriation 1
Money laundering 1
41 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Lithuania
LUXEMBOURG
investigations
€546 480 0
1
EDPs
0
0
Outgoing: 1
Incoming: 6

1

0
TOTAL 8 TOTAL 1
Dismissed cases
Insanity 0 Luxembourg City
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
42 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Luxembourg
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 0
Corruption 0
Misappropriation 0
Money laundering 0
43 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Luxembourg
MALTA
investigations
0 0
0
EDPs
0
0
Outgoing: 0
Incoming: 5

0

0
TOTAL 5 TOTAL 0
Dismissed cases
Insanity 0
Valletta
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
44 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Malta
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 0
Corruption 0
Misappropriation 0
Money laundering 0
45 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Malta
NETHERLANDS
investigations

4
EDPs
0
0
Outgoing: 0
Incoming: 17

4

0
TOTAL 10 TOTAL 4
Dismissed cases
Rotterdam
Insanity 0
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
46 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Netherlands
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 2
Corruption 0
Misappropriation 0
Money laundering 0
47 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Netherlands
PORTUGAL
investigations

9
EDPs
€3.3 million
0
Outgoing: 9
Incoming: 7

1

8
TOTAL 46 TOTAL 9
Dismissed cases
Porto
Insanity 0
Amnesty 0 Lisbon
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
48 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Portugal
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 1
Corruption 0
Misappropriation 0
Money laundering 2
49 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Portugal
ROMANIA
investigations
€1.3 billion 0
44
EDPs
€42 232
0
Outgoing: 11
Incoming: 9

26

34
TOTAL 353 TOTAL 60

Iași
Dismissed cases
Insanity 0
Amnesty 0 Bucharest
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
50 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Romania
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 0
Corruption 5
Misappropriation 5
Money laundering 2
51 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Romania
SLOVAKIA
investigations

42
EDPs
0
0
Outgoing: 4
Incoming: 29

34

11
TOTAL 91 TOTAL 45
Dismissed cases
Insanity 0 Bratislava
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
52 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Slovakia
Convictions 1
Acquittals 0
Confiscations 0

VAT revenue fraud 2
Corruption 0
Misappropriation 3
Money laundering 0
53 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Slovakia
SLOVENIA
investigations
€600 805 0
3
EDPs
0
0
Outgoing: 0
Incoming: 3

0

3
TOTAL 21 TOTAL 3
Dismissed cases Ljubljana

Insanity 0
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
54 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Slovenia
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 0
Corruption 0
Misappropriation 0
Money laundering 0
55 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Slovenia
SPAIN
investigations

7
EDPs
€1.6 million
0
Outgoing: 2
Incoming: 16

6

3
TOTAL 80 TOTAL 9
Dismissed cases
Death or winding up 0 Madrid
Insanity 0
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
TOTAL 0
56 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Spain
Convictions 0
Acquittals 0
Confiscations n/a

VAT revenue fraud 2
Corruption 0
Misappropriation 0
Money laundering 1
57 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity, judicial activity, typologies: Spain
Typologies identified in our cases
Investigated offences
Non-procurement expenditure Procurement expenditure Non-VAT revenue fraud

fraud fraud
313 110 132
VAT revenue fraud Participation in a PIF-focused Corruption

criminal organisation
173 30 40
Misappropriation Money laundering Inextricably linked offence
34 47 104
58 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity: Typologies identified in our cases
Non-procurement expenditure fraud
31.8% of the EPPO investigations concern suspected tions concerning the size of cultivated land and/or
non-procurement fraud in the form of the use or the amount of cattle (‘ghost cattle’), as well as the
presentation of false, incorrect or incomplete state- activity of criminal groups submitting false docu-
ments or documents, which has, as its effect, the ments for fictitious farming businesses of all kinds.
misappropriation or wrongful retention of funds or
assets from the Union budget or budgets managed Modus operandi related to this type of crime:
by the Union, or on its behalf.
• Submission of false information regarding eligi-
This type of fraud is to be found mainly in agricultural bility criteria, intentional manipulation of finan-
subsidies and direct payment, rural development, cial statements, inflated additional costs, false
maritime and fisheries development programmes, statements regarding the payment of experts or
infrastructure, human resources development pro- subcontractors;
grammes, Covid-19 related recovery funds, training
• Requesting reimbursement for services that
services, construction, research and innovation,
were not or not fully delivered, specifically in the
local infrastructure development, care services,
education sector and care services;
youth and unemployed integration into the labour
market, water infrastructure and support for small • Proposals for fake projects, including incorrect
to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). information about the execution and specific
requirements of projects.
In the case of agricultural subsidies in particular,
the EPPO is investigating fraud based on false,
incorrect or incomplete statements, false declara-
Procurement expenditure fraud

11.2% of the EPPO investigations concern suspected to award the tender to a specific economic
procurement expenditure fraud, usually through the operator;
use or presentation of false, incorrect or incomplete
• Intentional splitting of the tender by the manag-
statements or documents. Forgery is a common
ing authority into different procedures, permit-
inextricably linked offence.
ting the same beneficiaries to avoid evaluation
This type of fraud is to be found mainly in construc- by the European Commission;
tion, waste and wastewater infrastructure subsidies,
• Submission of false information regarding eli-
technology (green waste, recycling) and human
gibility criteria, collusion with public officials to
resources development programmes.
simulate award procedures, overstating costs
for EU reimbursement;
Modus operandi related to this type of crime:
• Provision of false documentation regarding the
• Submitting false declarations in public procure-
origin of tendered goods, where the products
ment calls, falsely indicating that the suspect
have not been produced by the tenderer but
meets the requirements of the tender;
from cheaper countries, which are not eligible for
• Collusive bidding, rigged specifications, manip- funding by the EU.
ulation of bids or conflict of interests in order
VAT revenue fraud
17.6% of the EPPO investigations concern the most but are exempt from the payment of import VAT
serious forms of VAT fraud, in particular carousel at the border, under the assumption that VAT will
fraud, VAT fraud through missing traders, and VAT be paid in the Member State where the goods are
fraud committed within a criminal organisation. effectively sold;
This type of fraud is to be found mainly in the auto- • False declaration of the origin of goods imported
motive sector, electronic devices sector, clothes and from a third country to avoid anti-dumping
merchandise. These types of schemes may involve duties;
tens or hundreds of companies acting in several
• Use of legitimate VAT documentation for fraudu-
countries, either as buffer traders, brokers or as
lent purpose in a carousel fraud, in which differ-
missing traders.
ent companies acting as buffer traders, brokers,
missing traders in several countries are involved;
Modus operandi related to this type of crime:
• VAT fraud committed by private persons by using
• Carousel fraud perpetrated by organised crime
the mechanism of filter companies and so-called
groups through missing trader companies
‘paper mill’ companies, which issue invoices for
acting in several Member States. This type of
non-existent operations, in connection with
fraud scheme is often linked to money launder-
the operation of introducing into the European
ing involving the property derived from the VAT
Union goods produced in third countries. In one
fraud scheme;
of the EPPO cases, 32 ‘paper companies’ (missing
• Abuse of Customs Procedure 42, where the goods traders) have been identified, operating in several
are submitted to the payment of customs fees Member States.
Non-VAT revenue fraud

13.4% of the EPPO investigations concern non-VAT imported goods (assembled in an EU country or
revenue fraud, in particular customs and anti- third country from parts originating from China,
dumping duties fraud. e.g. bicycles) in order to evade customs duty;
This type of fraud is to be found in trade with a vast • Seamless stainless steel products imported from
array of merchandise, including tobacco, electron- China where it is falsely attested that the prod-
ics, bicycles, stainless steel products, spare parts or ucts were submitted to a processing in another
perishable goods. third country in order to consider the product
obtained as being of other origin. Processing that
Modus operandi related to this type of crime: was never done in those cases and the technol-
ogy for the actual transformation was inexistent;
• Submission of incorrect customs declarations
and false invoices in order to avoid customs • Import of e-bikes, respectively assembled with
duties (tobacco) and anti-dumping duties, by bicycle parts, which were submitted to anti-
undervaluing the imported goods, declaring the dumping duties via the false declaration of the
wrong producer or declaring the wrong country origin of the goods;
of origin;
• Several cases concern the import of goods
• False import customs declarations regarding without paying custom fees in violation of the
the assembly operations performed upon the rules protecting the EU Customs Union.
Corruption cases
4% of the EPPO investigations concern active and • Public officials awarding EU funds to specific
passive corruption of public officials. companies and approving the payment of an
inflated price, significantly higher than the real
Modus operandi related to this type of crime: value of the contracted IT system;
• Bribery of project officials in exchange for either • High-level public officials in charge of managing
awarding EU funds to specific companies, or for the anti-fraud division within an agency manag-
approving ineligible and inflated additional costs ing EU funds in the field of agriculture requesting
in the execution of the projects; and receiving bribes for failure to fulfil duties.
Recovery of the proceeds
of criminal activity
In the first seven months of operations, 81 recov- measures had been taken by the criminals in order
ery actions took place in 12 of the participating to avoid confiscation. The EPPO made extensive use
Member States (Italy, Belgium, Germany, Romania, of value-based confiscation to enable recovery. The
Czechia, Croatia, Finland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Spain, EPPO also made several confiscation requests with
Lithuania, Portugal). In total, the EPPO requested the intention to secure possible civil actions.
more than €154 million to be seized, and the
The main assets seized were bank accounts, fol-
seizure of more than €147 million was granted. This
lowed by real estate properties, vehicles, motor-
represents over three times the budget of the EPPO
boats as well as shares, cash and luxury items.
in 2021.
Criminal merchandise has been seized and removed
The single highest seizure was more than €7 million from the market, effectively depriving the criminals
in monetary instruments. In 4 cases, a total of more of the benefit of their illicit activities. This includes
than €7 million was recovered before trial. Extended illicit tobacco for an estimated market value of
confiscation was requested in two instances, in order €17 million, and food products for an estimated
to restrain assets towards which some protective market value of €12 million.
62 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 2: Operational activity: Recovery of the proceeds of criminal activity
3
Activity of the College
Activity of the College
The College of the EPPO is responsible for the nent Chambers, the verification of the information
general oversight of its activities, for taking deci- registered to assess the EPPO’s competence, and the
sions on strategic matters, and for general issues reallocation of cases and modifications to the Case
arising from individual cases, in particular with a Management System9.
view to ensuring coherence, efficiency and con-
The College of the EPPO adopted specific rules
sistency in the prosecution policy of the EPPO
for European Prosecutors and European Dele-
throughout the participating Member States.
gated Prosecutors, for example regarding their
In 2021, the College of the EPPO met 34 times and appraisal procedure or their declarations of inter-
adopted 125 decisions6. est, their Code of Ethics and disciplinary rules10,
complementing the Code of Good Administra-
It established detailed rules for its operational activ-
tive Behaviour and the Code of Ethics for the
ities to ensure a consistent implementation of its
Members of the College and European Delegated
prosecution policy: operational guidelines on inves-
Prosecutors.
tigations; the criteria for evocation of pending cases
related to the offences falling into the EPPO’s com- The College of the EPPO adopted 42 decisions
petence and committed after 20 November 2017; related to administrative and financial matters, such
the criteria for non-evocation of cases by the Euro- as the Implementing Rules of the Staff Regulation,
pean Delegated Prosecutors and criteria for referral the Financial Rules applicable to the EPPO or the
of cases to the competent national authorities; as learning and development framework.
well as the operational procedure for processing
As appointing authority, the College of the EPPO
crime reports submitted by private parties7. The
adopted 56 decisions related to the appointment
College of the EPPO also decided to set up 15 Per-
of the Administrative Director and of the Data Pro-
manent Chambers, established their composition
tection Officer, as well as of the European Delegated
and regulated their procedures8.
Prosecutors in 22 participating Members States.
Once the EPPO became operational, the College of
Finally, the College adopted nine working arrange-
the EPPO amended and supplemented some deci-
ments with IBOAs11 and non-participating Member
sions based on the first lessons learned, for instance,
States12.
as regards the allocation of the cases to the Perma-
Solemn undertaking at the Court of Justice of the European Union, September 2020
64 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 3: Activity of the College

4
Activity of the
Permanent Chambers
Activity of the
Permanent Chambers
The Permanent Chambers monitor and direct the permanent members. Additionally, the European
investigations and prosecutions conducted by Prosecutor supervising an investigation or prose-
the European Delegated Prosecutors, ensure the cution in an individual case takes part in the delib-
coordination of investigations and prosecutions in erations and decision-making of the Permanent
cross-border cases and, by implementing the deci- Chamber in that individual case.
sions adopted by the College, ensure coherence,
Each Permanent Chamber relies on administrative
efficiency, and consistency in the EPPO’s prosecution
and legal support, so as to ensure proper and thor-
policy throughout the participating Member States.
ough monitoring of each of the investigations.
Cases are allocated randomly to the Permanent
Between June and December 2021, the Permanent
Chambers immediately after registration. Each of
Chambers held 282 meetings.
the 15 Permanent Chambers consists of a chair-
person and two European Prosecutors, who are its
Number and type of Permanent Chambers’ decisions
Registration and Verification
Evocation cases 17
Decisions instructing the European Delegated Prosecutor
to exercise the EPPO’s competence
Initiation cases 12
Agreements not to evoke a case 445
Agreements not to initiate an investigation 231
Decisions taken in accordance with Art. 27(8) and (9) EPPO Regulation13 290
Decisions to reopen an investigation 0
66 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 4: Activity of the Permanent Chambers

Investigations
Instructions for EDPs 1
Decisions on the review of assisting measures 0
Decisions to merge (non-domestic) cases 2
Decisions to split (non-domestic) cases 0
in the same Member State 0

Permanent Chambers’ decisions to reallocate
to another European Delegated Prosecutor
in another Member State 2
Approved requests for exceptionally costly investigative measures 0
Conclusion of cases
Number of termination decisions
Decisions to prosecute before a national court 5
Decisions to apply a simplified prosecution procedure (Art. 22(2)(c) IRP) 3
Decisions to dismiss a case 3
according to Art. 34(1) EPPO Regulation14 9
Permanent Chambers’ decisions according to Art. 34(2) EPPO Regulation15 4

to refer a case
according to Art. 34(3) EPPO Regulation16 18
Number of cases where national authority did not accept the case (Art. 34 (5) EPPO Reg.) 1

Grounds for dismissal of cases in accordance with Art. 39(1) EPPO Reg. (Art. 22(2)(b) IRP)
Grounds for dismissal Number of decisions
Death/winding up 0
Insanity 0
Amnesty 0
Immunity 0
Expiry of the national statutory limitation to prosecute 0
Case has already been finally disposed of in relation to the same acts 0
Lack of relevant evidence 3
Court proceedings
Permanent Chambers’ decisions to lodge or maintain the appeal 0
Permanent Chambers’ decisions to withdraw the appeal 0
Organisational matters
Permanent Chambers’ decisions on the request of the EP(s) to conduct the

0
investigation personally
Permanent Chambers’ decisions to reallocate to another EDP in the same

0
Member State in case of conflict of interest
Number of cases reallocated to another Permanent Chamber 25

5
Activity of the Operations
and College Support Unit
Activity of the Operations
and College Support Unit
The Operations and College Support Unit supports The unit contributed to the creation of a reporting
the operational activity of the EPPO throughout the structure, the definition of operational workflows,
entire life cycle of a case. From the moment infor- the training of the relevant staff in the use of the
mation about possible offences is reported to the Case Management System in the run-up to the oper-
EPPO, through to the investigation and prosecution ational start of the EPPO, and ensured the techni-
phases of the case, until a final decision is adopted. cal implementation of the working arrangements
signed between the EPPO, relevant national author-
Beyond its involvement in concrete EPPO investiga-
ities and IBOAs.
tions, the Operations and College Support Unit also
contributes to a consistent implementation of the Finally, the unit provides legal and administrative
prosecutorial policy by standardisation and sharing support to the Permanent Chambers and to the
of best practices, policy development, knowledge College of the EPPO, in particular by organising and
management, digital development, stakeholder preparing their meetings. It ensures that the deliber-
engagement and operational translations. The unit ations and decisions of the College of the EPPO are
is responsible for the scoping of tools needed for the properly recorded, and that all approved decisions
investigative work of the EPPO, with a view to acquir- are formalised and disseminated.
ing professional analytical software and securing
The Operations and College Support Unit is currently
access to commercial and public databases.
composed of two sectors:
• The Registry and Verification Sector is mainly

responsible for processing the information
reported to the Office pursuant to Article 24 of
the EPPO Regulation, for managing the opera-
tional aspects of the EPPO’s cooperation with its
partners and for providing support to the inves-
tigations. The sector is divided into 4 teams, with
22 dedicated country desks responsible for pro-
cessing information reported from each partic-
ipating Member State, and 2 specialised desks
responsible for processing information reported
by IBOAs and private parties.
• The European Prosecutors’ Support Pool Sector

is responsible for providing legal and administra-
tive support to the Permanent Chambers, mon-
itoring the uniformity of the internal practice,
managing the translations required by the multi-
lingual nature of the EPPO’s operations, as well as
providing secretarial assistance to the College and
to the European Prosecutors.
70 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 5: Operations and College Support Unit
Processing of reported information national authorities or to IBOAs, deleted/destroyed
or returned to sender. The highest number of com-
National authorities and IBOAs plaints came from Bulgaria (104), Romania (88),
Spain (75), Germany (68) and Croatia (59). The
In 2021, the EPPO processed 1351 crime reports
highest number of complaints forming the basis of
from national authorities and 190 crime reports from
a potential investigation came from Bulgaria (18),
IBOAs. Sources of the reports include all 22 partici-
Romania (11) and Croatia (7).
pating Member States, 4 IBOAs, 3 non-participating
Member States and third countries. The EPPO has also received 43 private party com-
plaints originating in non-participating Member
By the end of the reporting period, all backlog cases
States: Hungary (28), Poland (9) Ireland (6) and 55
reported to the Office by national authorities were
complaints from citizens of third countries.
processed within the deadlines foreseen by the
EPPO Regulation and Internal Rules of Procedure.
Specialised support to
The reporting of information is done via a direct,
secure connection (EPPOBox17) established between EPPO investigations
the Central Office and the EPPO offices in the par- In 2021, human resources and budgetary limi-
ticipating Member States, as well as the reporting tations allowed the EPPO to provide specialised
authorities and IBOAs. investigative support to European Delegated Pros-
ecutors and European Prosecutors only within the
Private parties and legal entities framework of a pilot project. We focused on a few
complex cases in situations where appropriate
The EPPO processed 1282 complaints from private
resources at national level were either insufficient
parties, out of which 525 were duplicates18. We regis-
or unavailable.
tered 720 unique complaints19. 70 were assessed as
falling under the EPPO’s competence. The rest were The following table outlines the main types of assign-
manifestly outside our competence, and referred to ments that were performed under the pilot project.
Requests for specialised support 46
• Complex national cases;
• cross-border cases;
• VAT carousel fraud cases;

Case area
• high profile cases involving EU officials;
• cases involving persons with immunity; procurement cases,

etc.
• Revenue fraud (VAT and non-VAT related);

Crime area (most frequent) • Expenditure fraud (procurement and non-procurement
related).
• Assessment of evidence;
• Preparation of an investigation plan;
• Participation in coordination meetings and action days,

both in Luxembourg and abroad;
• Participation in investigative measures in situ;
Type of task • Support to national police forces in cross-border cases;
• Collection of documents;
• Freezing or seizure of assets;
• Analysis of customs, fiscal and financial information;
• Open source and commercial database investigation

and others.
• Case material assessment;
• Financial investigation report;
• Analytical report;
• Assessment report;
• Open source intelligence report;

Outcome of support
• Translation tasks;
• Legal support;
• Damages calculation;
• Investigative coordination;
• Evidence collection and others.
6
Case Management
System and IT
Case Management
System and IT
The work of the EPPO is carried out in electronic and in December 2021. The system has also been
form. In 2021, our focus was on developing the updated with minor patches to adapt to require-
Case Management System and making it ready for ments stemming from regulatory obligations.
the operational start.
In addition to the Case Management System, we
For all other IT services, the EPPO relied on the developed and rolled out several IT tools to facili-
European Commission. tate and support operations: a platform for secure
transfer of information (EPPOBox); crime report
Development of the forms for the automated import of information; an
information exchange tool with other judicial organ-
Case Management System
isations such as Eurojust, Europol and OLAF; and an
The Case Management System is a complex set of eTranslation system for the automatic translation of
tools and applications that allows the European the registered cases.
Prosecutors, European Delegated Prosecutors and
designated EPPO staff to work in compliance with
the EPPO Regulation and the Internal Rules of
Procedure. It enables the transfer of cases to and
from national authorities, the reception and pro-
cessing of information from other sources (including
private parties), automated translation and all of the
case-related workflows.
The Case Management System allows the EPPO

to operate as a single office, making the case files
administered by European Delegated Prosecu-
tors available to the central level for the exercise of
its decision-making, monitoring, directional, and
supervisory tasks20.
A project team was created in 2020, with the task

of delivering the processes, IT tools and systems
required for the efficient and secure management of
an EPPO case from transfer of information to analy-
sis, storage and referral to national authorities.
In March 2021, the first release version of the Case

Management System was deployed in the EPPO pro-
duction environment, within our own data centre.
The Case Management System went live on 1 June
2021. Two major releases followed, in August 2021
74 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 6: Case Management System and IT

7
Human resources and
staff development
Human resources
and staff development
Our focus, throughout 2021, was on recruitment, dures and 149 for contract agents, leading to 121
onboarding and training. In addition, the HR team and 40 interviews, respectively.
prepared the adoption by the College of the EPPO
of most of the EU Staff Regulations’ Implementing Recruitment of European Delegated
Rules. All our activities were affected by the excep- Prosecutors
tional circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic,
and the necessary adaptations proved particularly We recruited 95 European Delegated Prosecutors,
challenging for such a young organisation. with the bulk of onboarding and training taking
place in the run-up to the operational start.
Recruitment According to Article 96(6) of the EPPO Regulation,
European Delegated Prosecutors are engaged as
Recruitment of statutory staff
Special Advisers and their rights relating to social
By 31 December 2021, the EPPO had organised security, pension and insurance coverage are to
20 selection procedures, and had recruited and be maintained under their respective national
onboarded 66 new statutory staff compared to schemes. This has given rise to several legal and
2020 – bringing the total figure to 122 statutory practical challenges regarding the organisation of
staff members. We received and processed 1246 their missions, leaves and absences, financial rights
applications for temporary agent selection proce- and obligations.
Establishment plan and occupancy rate
HUMAN RESOURCES 2021
Authorised Actually filled by Occupancy rate

budget 31/12/2021 (%)
Administrators (TA AD) 68 64 94%
Assistants (TA AST) 23 23 100%
Assistants/Secretaries (TA AST/SC) 4 4 100%
Total Temporary Agents (TA) 95 91 96%
Contract Agents (CA) 35 31 87%
TOTAL STAFF 130 122 94%
76 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 7: Human resources and staff development
Staff diversity
Statutory staff by nationality and gender
Nationality Male Female Total
Austria 0 1 1
Belgium 9 4 13
Bulgaria 2 6 8
Croatia 0 1 1
Cyprus 1 1 2
Czechia 1 2 3
Estonia 0 1 1
Finland 1 0 1
France 5 1 6
Germany 4 2 6
Greece 7 8 15
Hungary 1 0 1
Ireland 2 1 3
Italy 13 5 18
Latvia 1 2 3
Lithuania 2 0 2
Luxembourg 1 0 1
Malta 1 1 2
Netherlands 1 1 2
Poland 0 1 1
Portugal 3 0 3
Romania 10 5 15
Slovakia 2 0 2
Slovenia 1 2 3
Spain 4 5 9
TOTAL 72 (59%) 50 (41%) 122
Training and Development
Training activities focused on three main areas:
induction training for the European Delegated
Prosecutors; EU fraud topics (EU legal framework,
case law, main typologies of fraud); and courses for
all staff members (ethics principles, safety aware-
ness, data protection).
Specific training on operational matters was also

organised under a framework agreement with the
consortium composed by the Academy of European
Law and the European Judicial Training Network, as
well as in cooperation with OLAF.
The average number of training courses followed in

2021 by the EPPO staff was 4.5 for statutory staff and
3 for the European Delegated Prosecutors.
Training of European Delegated Prosecutors
In the first 7 months of operations, the EPPO

delivered induction training to 86 new European
Delegated Prosecutors in 9 dedicated sessions,
and 6 Case Management System training sessions,
in order to prepare them for the start of opera-
tions. The effort was concentrated in the second
quarter, as soon as they had been appointed by
the College of the EPPO. In the second semester of
2021, 5 induction and Case Management System
training sessions were organised for 11 newly
appointed European Delegated Prosecutors.
8
Financial resources and
their management
Financial resources
and their management
The EPPO achieved financial autonomy from the Delegated Prosecutors, and therefore to the oper-
European Commission on 24 June 2021. As of that ational start of the EPPO, as well as to limitations
date, the EPPO fully manages and implements its in the number of staff we were ultimately allowed
own budget in an independent manner. to hire, the EPPO had to adapt its budget to
€35.5 million.
The budget of the EPPO is financed from the
General Budget of the European Union in the form By the year’s end, 97% of this budget was committed
of a subsidy. In 2021, it was €45 million. However, (€35.3 million) and 71% paid. 26% of 2021 payment
due to delays in the appointment of European appropriations were carried over to 2022.
Breakdown of 2021 committed budget, €35.3 million
EXPENDITURES (ALL) €1.1 million

€5.3 million
Staff-related
€5.5 million
Administrative
Operational €15 million €15 million €4.8 million
Translation and interpretation

€3.6 million
Case Management System
European Delegated Prosecutors
Other operational costs
Procurement a Mission Charter for the Internal Audit Service,

which acts as the EPPO’s internal auditor on non-
The EPPO signed 156 contracts under existing
operational matters, in line with Article 79 of
inter-institutional framework contracts, for a total
the applicable financial rules, until the EPPO has
amount of more than €10 million. Once financially
established its own internal audit capability. The
autonomous, we launched our first substantial Open
EPPO started the selection procedure of an Internal
Call for Tenders for the Provision of Services in the
Audit Officer.
field of Information Systems.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the initial assess-
Internal audit capability ment by the Internal Audit Service was postponed
to 2022.
Following the EPPO’s financial autonomy on 24
June 2021, the European Chief Prosecutor signed
80 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 8: Financial resources and their management
9
Transparency and relations
with the general public
and the press
Transparency and relations with
the general public and the press
In 2021, the EPPO made 148 documents available to Media interest in the EPPO was very high through-
the public through its website. out the year. In the run up to the start of operations,
the European Chief Prosecutor and European Prose-
The EPPO received a total of 16 applications which
cutors gave more than 100 interviews to journalists
were registered as public access requests21, and
from the EU and beyond.
replied to them. All of these were initial applica-
tions. Out of the total figure of registered public The EPPO organised 4 press conferences: 1 on the
access requests, the EPPO granted full access upon start date of operations, and 3 during visits of the
10 of the applications. No access could be granted European Chief Prosecutor to Bulgaria, Malta and
under the EPPO’s rules in the remaining 6 cases. Slovenia. We published 68 news updates on the
In 2 cases, the applicant did not identify a spe- EPPO’s website in 2021. Only a handful of visits
cific document. In 1 case, the EPPO did not hold from student groups could take place, due to the
the requested documents. In the other 3 cases, Covid-19 pandemic.
the EPPO refused to grant access to documents
The corporate website www.eppo.europa.eu was
based on the reason that the right to access under
launched in January 2021, under the europa.eu
Article 109(1) of the EPPO Regulation, and hence
domain. It features as the central information hub
the EPPO’s applicable rules, do not extend to oper-
with news updates, vacancies, College Decisions
ational information from case files.
and Working Arrangements, as well as general
information about the EPPO’s mandate, structure
and legal framework.
Anyone looking to reach out to the EPPO can do so

through contact forms for media requests, general
queries and career enquiries, and the possibility
to report a crime directly to the EPPO. Reporting a
crime is possible via a web form available in 19 EU
languages.
The EPPO has official social media accounts on

Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube. These
channels are used to amplify the news updates
published on the website and to engage with the
broadest possible public. The number of followers
on all platforms combined quadrupled in 2021,
reaching almost 20000.
82 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 9: Transparency and relations with the general public and the press
10
Activity of the Legal Service
Activity of the Legal Service
The Legal Service supports the European Chief uted to the implementing rules to the Staff Regula-
Prosecutor, the College, the European Prosecutors tions, to the ethics and disciplinary framework, and
and the Administrative Director by advising on the to operational and administrative guidelines.
interpretation of the legal framework under Union
The Legal Service participated in the negotiation
law regulating the activities of the EPPO.
of working arrangements concluded by the EPPO,
In the phase leading up to the start of operations, in accordance with Article 99 of the EPPO Regula-
it contributed to the adoption by the College of tion, notably with the European Commission, OLAF,
the EPPO of all the necessary decisions, such as the Eurojust and Europol, or authorities of Member
Internal Rules of Procedure, decisions related to States that do not participate in the enhanced
the functioning and the composition of the Perma- cooperation, or of third countries.
nent Chambers, the conditions of employment for
The Legal Service also provided advice on the
European Delegated Prosecutors, the financial rules
application of the EPPO’s legal framework to inves-
and internal language arrangements. It also contrib-
tigations in the participating Member States. This
includes assessing, together with the competent
European Prosecutors and European Delegated
Prosecutors, circumstances in which the legal
framework in the participating Member States may
present critical issues of compatibility with Union
law, in particular in respect of the EPPO Regulation
and of the PIF Directive, which defines the scope
of the EPPO’s material competence. Moreover, the
Legal Service provided legal advice to European
Prosecutors and European Delegated Prosecutors
on various aspects related to judicial cooperation
in criminal matters between the EPPO and third
countries and non-participating Member States.
The Legal Service also lends legal support to the

European Chief Prosecutor and the College in the
representation of the EPPO to external stakeholders,
including Union institutions and bodies, authorities
in the participating and non-participating Member
States, authorities in third countries and interna-
tional organisations.
Lastly, the Legal Service represents the EPPO in lit-

igation before the Court of Justice of the European
Union. In 2021, two cases where lodged before the
General Court involving the EPPO, both pending
resolution.
84 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 10: Activity of the Legal Service
11
Data protection
Data protection
The EPPO operates under two distinct data pro- mentation of the Case Management System, as well
tection regimes, distinguishing between admin- as on defining the necessary policies, processes
istrative and operational personal data. The EPPO, and workflows in view of the start of operations on
under given circumstances, operates as, and pos- 1 June 2021.
sesses the competences of, a competent national
To ensure the creation of a data protection culture
authority – something without precedent in the
as well as a consistency of approach and prac-
European Union framework.
tices throughout the whole organisation, manda-
After having adopted the implementing legal tory trainings on data protection were provided
framework regarding personal data protection in throughout the year on at least a monthly basis,
2020, the College of the EPPO appointed a Data tailored both to the administrative and operational
Protection Officer22 in early 2021. The first half of sides, with European Delegated Prosecutors also
the year focused on ensuring a compliant imple- receiving their own dedicated training.
86 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 11: Data protection

12
Relations of the EPPO
with its partners
Relations of the EPPO
with its partners
In line with Article 99 of the EPPO Regulation, the The EPPO participated in numerous meetings
EPPO has established relations with institutions, with the European Council and the European Par-
bodies, offices and agencies of the Union, as well as liament. These included the joint meeting of the
with relevant authorities of the non-participating Committees on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home
Member States, of third countries and with interna- Affairs (LIBE) and on Budgetary Control (CONT),
tional organisations. a meeting of the Conference of Presidents of the
European Parliament, meetings of the Justice and
Home Affairs Council; as well as, at a technical
Relations with other institutions,
level, meetings of the Coordinating Committee in
bodies, offices and agencies of the area of police and judicial cooperation in crim-
the Union inal matters (CATS), the working party on judicial
cooperation in criminal matters (COPEN) and the
In 2021, the EPPO signed a working agreement with
working party on combating fraud (GAF).
the European Commission, setting out the practical
modalities for cooperation. There was a continuous The European Chief Prosecutor also participated
and intense dialogue with the relevant Commission in the yearly inter-institutional exchange of views
services, and several meetings of the European Chief with the European Council, the European Com-
Prosecutor with the Commissioner for Justice and mission and the European Parliament on the
the Commissioner for Budget and Administration. performance of OLAF.
Institutions, bodies, offices and agencies: crime reporting statistics
Exercised Competence
IBOA ECRs Pending
competence not exercised
European Anti-Fraud Office
171 85 74 12
(OLAF)
European Court of Auditors
1 1 0 0
(ECA)
European Investment Bank
17 2 9 6
(EIB)
European Central Bank (ECB) 1 1 0 0
TOTAL 190 89 83 18
88 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Section 12: Relations of the EPPO with its partners
Other communications to
IBOA Hit/no-hit requests to EPPO
EPPO
European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) 58 201
European Court of Auditors (ECA) 0 0
European Investment Bank (EIB) 0 9
European Central Bank (ECB) 0 0
TOTAL 58 210
Reports received from IBOAs, June–Dec 2021
80
70 71
European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF)
60 European Investment Bank (EIB)

55
50 European Court of Auditors (ECA)
40 European Central Bank (ECB)
30
22
20
11 13
10
5 3
1 1 2 1 2 2 1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Relations with non-participating this working arrangement to a prior approval of an

Members States and third countries amendment of the Polish Code of Criminal Proce-
dure that would allow recognition of the EPPO as
The EPPO concluded a working arrangement on competent authority.
cooperation with the Office of the Prosecutor
The practical consequence of Poland’s refusal to rec-
General of Hungary.
ognise participating Member States’ notifications
The negotiations with a view to concluding a of the EPPO as a competent authority without prior
working arrangement with the National Prosecu- national law modification is that Poland has been
tor’s Office of Poland, initiated in November 2020, consistently rejecting the EPPO’s requests for judicial
were finalised at a technical level in October 2021. cooperation since the start of its operations. Given
However, Poland has conditioned the signature of that whenever the EPPO is carrying out a criminal
Non-participating Involvement in Involvement in
Third country
Member States EPPO cases EPPO cases
Denmark 2 Albania 1
Hungary 17 Bosnia and Herzegovina 1
Ireland 2 China 13
Poland 23 Curaçao 1
Sweden 4 Democratic Republic of

1
Congo
TOTAL 48
Hong Kong 1
Lebanon 1
investigation of a cross-border nature, it is unable to
obtain evidence located in Poland, the EPPO’s ability Mauritania 1
to counter criminality affecting the Union budget is
systematically hindered. Republic of Korea 1
Two rounds of talks on a draft working arrangement Russia 1

with the Department of Justice of Ireland took place
in 2021. As the Irish authorities need more time Serbia 1
for inter-institutional consultation on certain legal Sri Lanka 1
aspects, the negotiations shall resume in 2022.
Switzerland 1
In November 2020, the EPPO sent a draft working
arrangement to the Director of Public Prosecutions
Syrian Arab Republic 1
of the Kingdom of Denmark. However, the Danish
authorities were not ready to engage in negotia-
Thailand 1
tions because of the need for internal consultations.
The cooperation in criminal matters with the Turkey 3

Kingdom of Sweden runs without difficulties on the Tunisia 2
basis of the relevant EU acts on judicial cooperation
in criminal matters. Ukraine 1
As regards third countries, the EPPO initiated nego-

United Arab Emirates 3
tiations with the aim to conclude working arrange-
ments with the relevant authorities of the United
United Kingdom 7
States of America and of Ukraine.
United States 1
Zambia 1
TOTAL 45
Participation in international activities Engagement with the Working Group
(networks, anti-corruption activities) on Bribery in International Business
Transactions of the OECD (WGB)
Cooperation with the Camden Asset The EPPO requested to participate in the WGB, as
Recovery Inter-agency Network (CARIN) well as in the meetings of the law enforcement offi-
The EPPO joined CARIN as an observer at the end cials at the WGB’s plenary meeting in October 2021.
of 2020. In that capacity, we took part in the CARIN We expect a decision in early 2022.
Annual General Meeting in April 2021 as well as the
CARIN Steering Group meeting.
Since the start of operations, we sent 5 requests for

information concerning third countries to the rele-
vant CARIN contact points.
Engagement with the Financial Action Task

Force (FATF)
The EPPO engaged in first discussions with the FATF,
aimed at outlining common fields of cooperation
and defining the process for a future participation of
the EPPO in the FATF, as an observer.
NOTES
1 College Decision 001/2020 for the Conditions of 15 The specific conditions for the exercise of EPPO’s com-
Employment of the European Delegated Prosecutors. petence set out are no longer met.
2 College Decision 003/2020 for the Internal Rules of 16 General guidelines allowing the Permanent Chambers
Procedure. to refer a case to the competent national authorities for
offences which caused or are likely to cause damage to
3 Possible differences in the overall outgoing and incom-
the financial interests of the Union of less than €100 000.
ing assisting measures depend on the way these are
accounted for at national level. 17 The EPPOBox is the channel for securely transferring
operational information developed by the EPPO and
4 Excluding one additional case where court proceed-
based on the Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). The
ings were commenced, in which there were three
reporting takes place via a dedicated web portal or
partial dismissals.
through an SFTP client. There were 337 EPPOBox users
5 Excluding one additional case where court proceed- in 2021.
ings were commenced, in which there were three
18 Private parties submitted the same report via several
partial dismissals.
reporting channels or they have sent the same com-
6 The decisions of the College are published on the plaint multiple times.
EPPO’s website.
19 Private parties reports that fall manifestly outside of
7 College Decision 029/2021 adopting operational EPPO’s competence are registered in the PP Dossier
guidelines on investigation, evocation policy and Application, while private parties reports that may
referral of cases. form the basis for an EPPO investigation are registered
into the Case Management System.
8 College Decision 066/2021 on the functions and proce-
dures of the Permanent Chambers. 20 Art. 8 paragraph 1, Art. 45 paragraph 2, and recital 47 of
the EPPO Regulation.
9 College Decision 085/2021 amending and supplement-
ing the Internal rules of procedure of the EPPO and the 21 In accordance with the principle of transparency and
Decision on Permanent Chambers (‘PCs’). the right for individuals to access documents, citi-
zens of the European Union and any other natural or
10 College Decision 039/2021 on the Code of Ethics
legal person residing or having a registered office in
for members of the College of the European Public
a Member State have, subject to certain principles,
Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and European Delegated
conditions and limits, a right of access to documents
Prosecutors (‘EDPs’); College Decision 044/2021 on
produced or held by the EPPO. Access may only be
laying down rules on the disciplinary liability of the
refused in specific, exceptional circumstances. Reg-
European Delegated Prosecutors.
ulation (EC) No 1049/2001 provides for general rules
11 European Commission, Eurojust, Europol, OLAF, Euro- for access to documents. Implementing rules for
pean Court of Auditors, the European Investment Bank access to EPPO documents have been adopted by
and the European Investment Fund. the College of the EPPO on 21 October 2020 (College
Decision 008/2020). In accordance with Article 109(1)
12 Working arrangement with the Office of the Prosecutor
of the EPPO Regulation, that right of access to docu-
General of Hungary.
ments does not apply to documents which are part of
13 Offences which caused or are likely to cause damage to the case files of the EPPO.
the Union’s financial interests of less than €100 000.
22 College Decision 001/2021.
14 The facts subject to investigation do not constitute a
criminal offence for which the EPPO is competent.
92 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Notes

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2529-346X

Luxembourg: European Public Prosecutor’s Office, 2022

© European Public Prosecutor’s Office, 2022

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

PDF: ISBN: 978-92-95226-02-9 ISSN: 2529-346X DOI: 10.2927/34796 KJ-NA-29-797-EN-N

Print: ISBN 978-92-76-08806-6 ISSN 1018-5593 DOI:10.2760/473302 KJ-NA-29-797-EN-C

Section 1: General aspects.................................................................................................................................. 7

Organisation and functioning ............................................................................................................... 8

Section 2: Operational activity.......................................................................................................................... 9

Typologies identified in our cases....................................................................................................... 58

Recovery of the proceeds of criminal activity................................................................................... 62

Section 3: Activity of the College.................................................................................................................... 63

Section 4: Activity of the Permanent Chambers........................................................................................... 65

Section 5: Activity of the Operations and College Support Unit............................................................... 69

Section 6: Case Management System and IT................................................................................................. 73

Section 7: Human resources and staff development................................................................................... 75

Section 8: Financial resources and their management............................................................................... 79

Section 10: Activity of the Legal Service........................................................................................................ 83

Section 11: Data protection.............................................................................................................................. 85

Section 12: Relations of the EPPO with its partners.................................................................................... 87

With a budget set at €44.9 million for 2021, allow-

4 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Foreword

There is no doubt that the operational start of the

5 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 Foreword

BE Belgium CNA: Competent national authority

EE Estonia MS: Member State

6 | EPPO Annual Report: 2021 List of abbreviations

The EPPO started operations on 1 June 2021. Within

115 Opened investigations

110 Cross-border investigations

€5.4 billion €2.5 billion

Indictments Seizures Assisting measures assigned to

Received reports/complaints Opened investigations

From private parties 1282 Evoke investigation

TOTAL 2832 TOTAL 576

Decision not to exercise competence 956

Referral to national authorities (where competence was exercised) 31

Ongoing cases in the trial phase 5

Cases where simplified prosecution procedures were applied 3

Number of first court decisions 0

Number of appeals against first court decisions 0

Number of ongoing cases in the appeal phase 0

Number of final court decisions 1

Number of extraordinary legal remedies against court decisions 0

Confiscations €22 000

Typologies identified in EPPO cases

Non-procurement expenditure fraud 313

Procurement expenditure fraud 110

Non-VAT revenue fraud 132

VAT revenue fraud 173

Participation in a PIF-focused criminal organisation 30

Inextricably linked offence 104

Cross-border investigations 142

Received reports/complaints Opened investigations

From private parties 0 Evoke investigation

Decision not to exercise competence 8

Referral to national authorities (where competence was exercised) 0

Ongoing cases in the trial phase 0

Cases where simplified prosecution procedures were applied 0

Number of first court decisions 0