OLAF: reform draws nigh

European Union anti-fraud agency OLAF currently sits ‘awkwardly’ in the European Commission when it is tasked with investigating misconduct in EU institutions including… the Commission, but independence is now a real possibility. Keith Nuthall reports.

While the European Union’s (EU) anti-fraud agency OLAF had a difficult birth in 1999, its childhood and developing adolescence have been easier, and this important organisation has become increasingly effective. It was never going to be an easy job investigating fraud in a polity as diverse as the EU but given the unhealthy levels of fraud and financial mismanagement in EU budgets and its earmarked customs duty income, OLAF has to exist: someone has to investigate EU fraud.