VAT fraud: Council agrees to strengthen cooperation with EU investigative bodies

The Council today provisionally agreed new rules to strengthen the fight against value added tax (VAT) fraud in the EU by ramping up cooperation between member states, the European public prosecutor’s office (EPPO) and the European anti-fraud office (OLAF).

The new framework will give EPPO and OLAF more direct access to key VAT data on cross-border business transactions in the EU, including information held by Eurofisc - the EU’s anti-VAT fraud network.

In practice, the new framework means that EPPO and OLAF will have the first-hand information they need to launch and support investigations under their competences into suspected cross-border VAT fraud. This will improve coordination between the various actors, speed up investigations, and strengthen the EU’s overall capacity to detect and combat VAT fraud affecting the Union’s financial interests. At the same time, it will help put the EU’s legitimate businesses on a more level playing field.

More details to be found in the Council’s press release of 5 Mai 2026.