According to the agency’s annual report, there were 3,602 active investigations underway at the end of the year, and the estimated damage to the European Union’s financial interests exceeded 67 billion euros.
For most Moldovans, these statistics may seem far removed from everyday life. However, as the country moves toward EU membership, the significance of such figures will only grow. This is not just about fighting corruption or fraud, but about a mechanism to oversee how European funds are spent.
A New Scale of Financial Crime
Established in 2021, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) became the first supranational EU body with the authority to independently investigate crimes that harm the Union’s budget.
In four years of operation, the EPPO has become one of Europe’s most influential law enforcement institutions. While in the early years the focus was primarily on the misuse of grants and subsidies, today the bulk of the damage under investigation is linked to complex international schemes.
According to the report, more than two-thirds of the estimated damage is attributable to cross-border VAT fraud. Such schemes often span multiple countries, involve dozens of companies, and feature complex chains of financial transactions. In some cases, the losses amount to hundreds of millions of euros.
Another major focus of investigations remains the misuse of European funds, including economic recovery programs, infrastructure projects, and business subsidies.
Why Brussels Is Stepping Up Oversight
In recent years, the European Union has significantly increased the amount of financial support provided to member states.
This includes not only traditional structural funds but also large-scale post-pandemic economic recovery programs, financing for energy projects, digitalization, infrastructure modernization, and regional development.
The more money that flows through European mechanisms, the higher the risk of fraud. This is precisely why Brussels is gradually building a control system in which national law enforcement agencies work together with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In effect, the EPPO is becoming the financial “guardian” of the EU budget.
What does this mean for Moldova
Today, Moldova is not part of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office system, as it is not a member of the European Union.
However, the country already receives significant financial support from European institutions and expects this support to increase further as part of the European integration process.
The experience of Central and Eastern European countries shows that as the volume of European funding increases, so does the scrutiny over its use. After joining the EU, national projects funded by European funds may come under the EPPO’s scrutiny in cases of suspected fraud, corruption, or misuse of funds.
This is precisely why issues of transparency in public procurement, project management, and oversight of spending take on not only domestic but also European significance.
EU funds require new standards
For Moldova, the main takeaway from the EPPO report is not the amount of identified losses or the number of investigations.
Something else is far more important: European integration means not only access to financial resources but also a willingness to operate under new rules of transparency and accountability.
As accession negotiations progress, issues regarding oversight of the use of European funds will become an increasingly important part of the dialogue between Chisinau and Brussels.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office’s annual report shows that the EU today devotes no less attention to protecting its budget than to issues of trade, energy, or security. For candidate countries, this means the need to adapt in advance to stricter financial control requirements.
In this sense, the €67 billion in investigations are not merely statistics on financial crimes in Europe, but also a signal of how the accountability system will function in the future European Union.
