EU Fraud Cases Surge to Record High in 2025
The scale of the financial hemorrhage is stark: losses have nearly tripled compared to 2024, when damage was pegged at €24.8 billion, signaling a dramatic acceleration in fraud targeting the European Union's financial foundations.
VAT and customs fraud emerged as the dominant driver of financial harm, accounting for €45.01 billion — more than two-thirds of total estimated damage — despite representing only 27% of active investigations. The EPPO cautioned that revenue fraud has matured into a highly profitable criminal enterprise, frequently operated by sophisticated, large-scale organized crime networks.
The office launched 2,030 new investigations in 2025 alone, itself a 35% year-on-year rise, carrying an estimated damage figure of €48.7 billion.
Expenditure fraud — encompassing the misuse of EU funds and subsidies — dominated the caseload at 68% of active investigations, yet contributed just 27% of overall estimated damage, illustrating how certain fraud typologies punch far above their numerical weight.
Post-Pandemic Funds Under Fire
One of the report's sharpest warnings centers on the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the EU's flagship post-pandemic recovery program. Active investigations tied to the fund surged nearly 67% year-on-year to 512 cases, raising serious questions about oversight and disbursement controls across member states.
Kovesi Sounds the Alarm
European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi framed the numbers as both a measure of criminal ambition and a reflection of the institution's expanding reach as the EU's first transnational prosecution body.
"By the end of 2025, we had 3,602 active cases, for a total estimated damage of over €67.27 billion. This is huge. Unfortunately, these numbers will continue to increase in the coming years," she said.
Kovesi singled out VAT and customs fraud as a systemic threat that has gone unaddressed for too long, warning that its consequences extend well beyond fiscal loss.
"With 981 ongoing VAT and customs fraud cases worth €45.01 billion in estimated damage to European and national budgets, we are making a dent in a criminal industry that has been ignored or tolerated for far too long," she added, cautioning that unchecked fraud of this scale poses a direct risk to EU security.
The EPPO operates as an independent EU body mandated to investigate and prosecute offenses against the bloc's financial interests — a mission these latest figures suggest is growing more urgent by the year.
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