Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

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with observations forming an integral part of the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office for the financial year 2023

(2024/2029(DEC))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office for the financial year 2023,

– having regard to Rule 102 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the opinion of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs,

Changed– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A100000/2025),(A10-0051/2025),

A. whereas the EPPO is the independent public prosecution office of the Union, responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes against the financial interests of the Union, for significantly enhancing the Union’s capacity to safeguard taxpayer funds, and for bringing to judgment the perpetrators of, and accomplices to, criminal offences provided for in Directive (EU) 2017/1371 and indicated by Regulation (EU) 2017/1939;

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ChangedB. whereas the competence of the EPPO encompasses several types of fraud, and includes cross-border VAT fraud with damagesa abovetotal damage of at least EUR 10 million, money launderinglaundering, corruption, organised crime and corruption;other offences for which the EPPO performs prosecutorial functions before the competent courts of the participating Member States;

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C. whereas the EPPO is one of the component of the Union’s anti-fraud architecture and, as such, its actions are coordinated with and complementary to those of the other components of the architecture, to achieve streamlined, efficient coordination that enhances the overall effectiveness of the architecture;

D. whereas the EPPO intervenes when national authorities could investigate and prosecute crimes but where the prerogatives of national authorities stop at the borders of their country, and other organisations like Eurojust, OLAF and Europol do not have the necessary powers to carry out the relevant criminal investigations and prosecutions;

E. whereas the procedural acts of the EPPO are subject to judicial review by the national courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union (the ‘Court of Justice’) has, by way of preliminary rulings or judicial reviews of those acts, residual power to ensure a consistent application of Union law;

F. whereas the EPPO is composed of a central level, with its headquarters in Luxembourg, consisting of the European Chief Prosecutor, 22 European Prosecutors (one per participating Member State), the Administrative Director, and a decentralised, national- level consisting of the European delegated prosecutors (EDPs) in the 22 participating Member States;

G. whereas at the central level the European Chief Prosecutor and the 22 European Prosecutors compose the College of the EPPO (the ‘College’) and supervise the investigations and prosecutions carried out by the EDPs at the national level, who operate with complete independence from their national authorities;

H. whereas, under Article 93 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939, the EPPO Administrative Director, acting as the authorising officer of the EPPO, is to implement its budget under its own responsibility and within the limits authorised in the budget and shall send each year to the budgetary authority all information relevant to the findings of any evaluation procedures;

I. whereas, in accordance with Article 50(2) of the EPPO's Financial Rules, the Accounting Officer of the Commission is also to act as Accounting Officer of the EPPO and is responsible for the preparation of the annual accounts, which are consolidated with those of the Union;

J. whereas, under the current framework, the final annual accounts are scrutinised by the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’) and it is with the Council to recommend and to the European Parliament to decide whether to grant discharge to EPPO’s Administrative Director in respect of the implementation of the budget for a given financial year;

K. whereas the scrutiny over the management of the EPPO resources and related expenditure cannot ignore the examination of operational activities, their consequences and impact and the methods of their execution;

L. whereas the EPPO has been operating autonomously in the implementation of its budget only since 24 June 2021 and it has started its operational activities, necessitating continuous evaluation to ensure resources align with operational effectiveness, on 1 June 2021, which is also the dies a quo for the five-year term indicated in Article 119 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 upon reaching which the Commission will have to submit to the European Parliament and to the Council and to national parliaments an evaluation report on the implementation and impact of such Regulation, and on the effectiveness and efficiency of the EPPO and its working practices, together with its conclusions;

M. whereas, in accordance with Article 119(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939, the Commission is to submit legislative proposals to the European Parliament and to the Council if it concludes that it is necessary to have additional or more detailed rules on the setting up of the EPPO, its functions or the procedure applicable to its activities, including its cross-border investigations;

1. Welcomes the positive opinion of the Court on the reliability of the EPPO’s accounts for the year ended 31 December 2023 and on the legality and regularity of the underlying revenue and payments;

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Changed2. Recalls the Parliament’s strong support for the establishment of the EPPO; acknowledges the EPPO as an independent Union body; stresses the EPPO’s important role in the protection of the Union’s financial interests and as an essential component of the Union’s anti-fraud architecture and of ana wider Union system based on integrity, accountabilityaccountability, transparency and the sound financial management of resources; commends the EPPO for its work in investigating, prosecuting, and ensuring justice for crimes affecting the Union budget, such as fraud, corruption, and cross-border VAT fraud;

3. Notes that it is possible to compare only the two most recent budgetary and operational performances of the EPPO, for the period 2022 to 2023, following the EPPO’s financial autonomy in June 2021; observes that, in that context, the budgetary increases related to the EPPO’s activities remain very difficult to estimate because of the EPPO’s recent establishment, the unique characteristics of the EPPO and its main activities, the unpredictable level of fraud detection, the wide variety of its cases, its lack of discretion with regard to pursuing prosecutions coupled with its reliance on the resources and procedural constraints of national judicial systems, the lack of a fixed correlation between the number and the costs of investigations, and the magnitude of the Union’s financial interests that are to be protected; also observes that it is difficult to estimate the expenditure for the caseload related to the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) because of its unprecedented manner of implementation and high volume of resources;

Budgetary and financial management

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Changed4. Notes that the overall final budget allocated to the EPPO for 2023 was EUR 65,9 million, substantially increased (by 14,7 %) from the EUR 51,2 million that was allocated in 2022, while the 2021 budget (EUR 26,2)26,2 million) related to a period prior to the EPPO’s financial autonomy; observes that the EPPO’s budget includes the reinforcement, granted by the budgetary authority onat EPPO’sthe request of the EPPO in June 2023, by EUR 500 000 (the request also included human resources related to the essential enhancement of the EPPO’s security capacity, leading to the grant of eight additional establishment plan posts); appreciates that no budget was returned in 2023, compared to 10 % (EUR 5,9 million) of the initial budget in 2022 and 21 % (EUR 9,5 million) in 2021; re-iterates the need for the EPPO to be provided with sufficient resources to adequately fulfil its mandate;

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Changed5. Welcomes the increasing level of budget implementation, thatwhich was 99,6 % in 2023 (compared to 98,1 % in 2022 and 97,4 % in 2021); appreciates that the overall execution rate for payments progressed in 2023 reaching 85,3 % (compared to 76,6 % and 71 % in 2022 and 2021) and the average payment time decreased to 17 days (werecompared to 23,8 in 2022 and 21,0 in 2021); observes that the electronic invoicing module (e-invoicing) was rolled out fromin June 2023 and it will contribute to further reducereducing administrative burdens, time-to-payment and the overall processing costs; encourages a further refinement of operational processes to maximise efficiency;

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Changed6. Understands that, because the budget endowment requests were only partially met, the EPPO focused its financial resources on the intake of additional EDPs, which has an impact on the EPPO’s capacity to lead the increasing number of investigations and prosecutions, on the need to improve the security standing of the organisation and on the maintenance of its case-management System (CMS), which could have negatively affected the management of cross-border investigations; underlines the importance of additional funding and strengthening its staffing to enable the EPPO to effectively combat organised crime, protect the Union’s financial interests, and uphold the rule of law, which are key Union priorities; calls for a dedicated increase in funding within the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) to ensure it can continue to meet its objectives and obligations;

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Changed7. Is aware that, following the achievement of its financial autonomy, in June 2021, the EPPO has prioritised the operational expenditure related to investigation, prosecution and security measures, and that this has resulted in limiting the non-operational expenditure to essential level support services; remarks that, in this context, a total of EUR 28 312 075 was allocated on operational expenditure lines (Title 3), representing 43 % of the EPPO’s final budget 2023 (compared to EUR 21 047 346346, thatwhich iswas 41 % in 2022); observes that the main cost drivers for these activities were the EDPs’ remuneration (51 % of the operational activities compared to 42% in 2022), followed by operational ICT activities like maintenance and development of the EPPO’s CMS (19 % compared to 28 % in 2022), and the linguistic services (translation and interpretation related activities) (14 %, the same as in 2022);

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Changed8. Notes that the remuneration of the EDPs reached EUR 14,5 (compared to EUR 8,7 million in 2022), and itwhich represents the main operational expenditure because of the increased number of EDPs in place over 2023; acknowledges thatwelcomes the enlargementaccession toof Poland and Sweden,Sweden to the EPPO, which was announced in 2024,2024; notes that it did not affect the 2023 expenditure and it will concernconcerns the 2024 budget only marginally, due to the late and gradual intake of two European Prosecutors and ofa number of EDPs which is not possible to anticipate;EDPs; understands that a more solid cost estimation will not be possible onlyuntil 2025; welcomes the inclusion in 2025;the programme of the objective of the new Irish Government to join the EPPO; calls on the Hungarian government, as the sole remaining Member State that has not yet joined the EPPO, despite the absence of any legal or constitutional impediment, to join the EPPO without further delay;

9. Observes that costs for missions and operational meetings increased further in 2023 (mission costs were EUR 1 175 000 in 2023 and EUR 980 000 in 2022; operational meeting in 2023 were EUR 659 752 compared to EUR 170 000 in 2022), in line with the increasing level of intensity of investigations;

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Changed10. Is aware that the costs for translation services are expected to further increase, in line with the EPPO’s increasing caseload, and recognises the need for additional resources for translation; welcomes both the internal guidance developed on the use of translation services, with a view ofto reinforcing control over costs and including the recommendation to use machine translation services whenever possible, and the resortuse of national service providers inof the limit allowed by the current Regulation;Regulation to address the problem; observes, in that regard, that while Article 107 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 provides for translation services required for the administrative functioning of the EPPO at the central level to be provided by the Union’s Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union, it also provides for different handling of operational and urgent matters and empowers EDPs to decide on the arrangements for translations for the purpose of investigations in accordance with applicable national law;

11. Notes that in 2023 the EPPO signed 234 specific contracts under existing framework contracts, for a total of more than EUR 11 million, with a significant increase in the use of EPPO framework contracts (82 specific contracts for a value of more than EUR 6,5 million) due, to a great extent, to the use of the EPPO’s framework contract for the Provision of Services in the Field of Information Systems; observes that only one contract, concerning the EPPO’s CMS, was awarded via a negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice for reasons of extreme urgency;

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Changed12. Observes that carry-over of appropriations from the previous exercise in 2022 amounted to EUR 10 969 680 (24,4 % of the EPPO’s 2022 final budget), of which 84,8 % was consumed (EUR 9 307 392) and 15,2 % was cancelled (compared to 21,4 % in 2022) and notes that forecasts indicate another carry-over in 2024, pending completion of the deliverables, for payment appropriations (the carry-over from 2023 to 2024 amounted to EUR 9 392 989); understands that partial cancellation is a consequence of the progressive establishment of the EPPO’s administrative practices following the financial autonomy it achieved in 2021; notes that carry-over appropriations cancelled for approved budgets of 2022 and 2023 could be neither used with existing or new contracts nor synchronised with the principle of annuality, while the planning of the corresponding expenses, mainly related to translation, meetings, missions and external contractors, could not be accurate fordue to a lack of any historical data and figures and the rapid evolving of the organisation; appreciates that the continuous strengthening of the EPPO’s administrative capacity is progressively addressing those issues and that, while a fully estimation cannot be made in advance because of the nature of the EPPO’s operational activity, the expected level of cancelled appropriations will diminish in 2024;

13. Notes that in 2023 two budget transfers were adopted by the European Chief Prosecutor, on a proposal drawn up by the Administrative Director, and that they were notified to the College for information, for a total transferred between titles of EUR 1,2 million;

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Changed14. Acknowledges the need for adequate budget flexibility, to address unexpected operational needs such as, in 2023, the war in Ukraine, inflationary pressures, or other global challenges and understands that the EPPO made use of its Financial Rules by timely reallocation of appropriations via budget amendments (one in June and one in November) and via budget transfers (one in September and one in December);

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Changed15. Reiterates its observation on the obsolete 2017 Legislative Financial Statement which is deemed to be no longer fit-for-purpose due to a significantly underestimated workload; recalls its previous resolution, underlining that the absence of a mid-term budgetary review obliges the EPPO to wait until the very end of the budgetary adoption process to have clarity on what resourcesresource level it can implement in the subsequent year, and it limits the EPPO’s capacity to anticipate budget implementation preparatory activities as well as the options that should be made available to achieve maximalmaximum flexibility in the development of an organisational infrastructure for a project as innovative as the EPPO; notes that thisthis, in particularparticular, affects the early launch of recruitment, delaying the progress towardtowards full occupancy among others and the overall absorption capacity of the EPPO;

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Changed16. Maintains that the budgetary and human resources allocated to the EPPO are expected to be adequate to allow the efficient and successful carrying out of its mandate and the normal handling of the related administrative procedures; reiterates its call on the Commission to review the EPPO budgetary framework in close cooperation with the EPPO to find adequate ways to support it in its work; recommendscalls on the Commission to consider thatallocate inadditional theresources, contextjustified ofby athe growing number of complex cases, additional resources will beand neededemphasises andthat these should not be dependent on the revision of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 andor of the EPPO mandate;mandate, but rather on the importance of the fight against organised crime and the protection of the Union’s financial interests in the next MFF;

17. Emphasises that the activities of the EPPO contribute to the protection of the Union’s financial interests and are also expected to recover amounts from the Union’s budget that were not used for its intended purpose due to criminal activities; believes that the amounts resulting from seizing and confiscating measures adopted by the EDPs in the Member States could, after the deduction of costs incurred by the Member States’ authorities to implement those measures, flow back into the Union Budget in accordance with Article 38 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939; considers that the potential revenue resulting from seizing and confiscating measures should be accounted for in the Union Budget as non-assigned revenue; calls on the Commission to make the necessary arrangements with the relevant national authorities to allow those amounts to enter into the Union Budget;

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Changed18. Acknowledges that the EPPO clearly contributes to European added value in terms of coordination and cooperation with the Member States in investigating and prosecuting crimes against the financial interests of the Union and that the EPPO has been achieving the goals set out in Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 in that regard; expects Member States to comply with legal obligations and to report all relevant cases to the EPPO; notes with concern that in several instances Member States have been declaring criminal offences affecting the financial interests of the Union as national cases, which are within the competence of the EPPO; notes that questions of competence between the national authorities and the EDPs have come up in several cases across several countries; is aware that, according to Article 25(6) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939, cases of disagreement about the EPPO’s competences are to be decided by the same national judicial authority who is responsible for determining the competent body for prosecution at national level; regrets that in many participating Member States the procedures in force and the national authorities entrusted with the decisions on such cases regarding conflicts of competence are not set in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2017/1939, stresses that in cases of conflicts of competence between the EPPO and a national prosecution authority, the national authority competent to decide on the attribution of competence could come to a conclusion without requesting a preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice and could, instead adopt a decision that is binding on the EPPO and points out that this is against the spirit of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939, which provides that, in accordance with Article 267 TFEU, the Court of Justice has jurisdiction to give a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of the provision on conflicts of competence between the EPPO and national authorities; believes that the current situation lacks legal clarity; encourages all Member States to work more closely with the EPPO; emphasises that the competence of the EPPO is clearly outlined in Article 22(1) and (2), and in Article 23 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2019,2017/1939, and that all Member States are to comply with that Regulation; notes that when Member States have doubts about the competence of the EPPO in a particular case, there is the possibility of submitting a preliminary question to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling pursuant to Article 267 TFEU and Article 42(2), point (c), of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 ; urges the Commission, where there is a breach of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939, to submit the case to the Court of Justice; notes with concern that the question of competence can cause a halt to the investigation; is concerned about potential loss of evidence when cases are paused; calls on the Commission to collect information regarding cases regarding conflicts of competence for the evaluation report that will be submitted in 2026;

19. Reiterates that Article 91(6) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 is to be implemented properly and underlines that the peculiar characteristics of prosecution and investigation expenditure, including the exceptional cases of the EPPO's operational expenditure governed by that provision, have to be taken into account; understands that, in 2023, a first financing agreement was signed in the framework of a pilot for the reimbursement of claims made under Article 91(6) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1939, to cover exceptionally costly investigation measures carried out at national level on behalf of the EPPO; appreciates that the corresponding payment was audited by the Court during the 2023 audit and was deemed legal and regular;

Internal management, performance and internal control

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Changed20. NotesWelcomes that, during 2023, the College met 22 times and adopted 73 decisions, among which are the anti-fraud strategy 2023-2025, the anti-harassment policy for staff and for members of the College or the EDPs;

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Changed21. Acknowledges that the EPPO continued its efforts to set in place a system to monitor efficiency gains and costscost savings, and notes that in 2023 it launched a review of the budget’sbudget and activities’ strategic and operational planning and monitoring processes and of the recruitment processes, to gainmake gains in speed and acquired competences; points out that, overall, the internal control systems in force are effective;

22. Notes that, to further develop the EPPO’s assurance framework, the internal auditor of the EPPO for non-operational matters (IAS) initiated, in 2023, a limited review of the EPPO’s building blocks of assurance; believes that this engagement, scheduled to be finalised during the course of 2024, will provide recommendations to build a stronger capacity for the Authorising Officer to issue a credible declaration of assurance;

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Changed23. Welcomes the benchmarking exercise carried out by the Internal Audit Capability (IAC) by comparing the deployed human resources of the EPPO with a set of other Union entities and national prosecution offices, against a standardised set of pillars which includes administrative support and operational activities; observes that, in 2023, the IAC tested the internal oversight environment and runran the first internal audit as an analysis of the working environment and internal controls of the EPPO’s decentralised office in Sofia, Bulgaria;

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Changed24. Reiterates its view that the IAS and the IAC should coordinate their actions with a view to advising and assisting the EPPO in the establishment of its main core processes and the achievement of its objectives;

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Changed25. Notes that the EPPO has developed its own purchase capacity, resulting from its own specifically run procurement processes launched in 2023, and manages its own specific contracts and order forms inwith regard to the implementation of existing framework contracts that were signed in 2023; observes that the EPPO continues, in parallel, to operate its purchase capacity through service level agreements with other Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies, and by joining inter-institutional contracts with various market operators;

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Changed26. Is aware that in 2023 the Administrative Director established the minimum standards (assessment criteria) for each of the 17 internal control principles based on the COSO 2013 Control-Integrated Framework and established by the EPPO Internal Control Framework (ICF) as building blocks of the EPPO internal control system; observes that out of 72 compliance criteria, 51 are observed as fulfilled while forfulfilled, 20 have some elements are in place but further development is desirable and foronly onein onlythe case of one criterion has no significant implementation has been noted; appreciates that, since its adoption by the College on March 2021, the 71 % of the adopted ICF assessment have been successfully implemented whereas additional effort needs to be donemade for the full implementation of the remaining 29 %;

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Changed27. NotesWelcomes that, on 1 March 2023, an updated version of the EPPO Anti-fraud Strategy 2023- 2025 was adopted setting the objectives to counter fraud at all levels of the organisation in connection with a dedicated action plan which is part of the EPPO internal control environment and is monitored on a regular basis; appreciates the annual review of the Anti-Fraud Strategy action plan by the EPPO Internal Control Officer, reporting the results of that review to the Administrative Director;

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Changed28. Is aware that, in line with the EPP’sEPPO’s financial rules, the EPPO ensures thean adequate level of the financial transactions and procurement procedures via ex post controls on financial transactions (payments, commitments and recovery orders) and on procurement procedures for the period 1 January to 31 December 2023;

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Changed29. Observes the increase in crime reports submitted to the EPPO (4 187 in 2023 compared to 3 318 in 2022 and 2 832 in 2021) and, as a result, the increase in open investigations (1 371 in 2023 compared to 865 in 2022 and 567 in 2021) and in the estimation of damagesdamage (EUR 19,27 billion in 2023 compared to 14,1 billion in 2022 and 5,4 billion in 2021); remarks that reports from private parties (2 494, which is 29 % more than in 2022) and from national authorities (1 562, which is 24 % more than in 2022) represent the biggest share of operational input received, while regrets that reports from other Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies remained very fewlow (108), suggesting that no significant improvement in terms of detection and reporting was achieved from their side; notes that the number of indictments (139 in 2023 compared to 87 in 2022 and 5 in 2021) together with the freezing orders obtained by the EPPO (EUR 1,5 billion compared to EUR 359,1 million in 2022 and EUR 147 million in 2021) are indicative of the growing performance level of the EPPO;

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Removed30. Notes that, in 2023, 48 cases concluded with a court conviction (compared to 20 cases in 2022) and that EUR 60 million was the amount confiscated (compared to EUR 2 million in 2021); underlines the importance of a systematic reporting on the follow-up to these cases in terms of the financial measures adopted (confiscation and recovery) to get a clearer understanding of the impact of the EPPO’s actions; welcomes the actions undertaken by EPPO and the Commission to streamline their communications and make them adequate to the needs of possible administrative procedures for the adoption of measures to restore the Union’s budget affected by financial crimes; reiterates its call on the Commission to assist the EPPO in the monitoring and follow-up activities, in such a way that the EPPO’s limited resources are not diverted from their investigative and prosecutorial tasks; encourages the EPPO, where possible and appropriate, to engage in better cooperation with other components of the Union’s anti-fraud architecture, such as Eurojust and Europol, or using - via OLAF- the Anti-Fraud Coordination Services established in the Member States to monitor the results of its investigations;

Added30. Notes that, compared with 2022, the caseload of the EPPO almost doubled in 2023, reaching up to 1 927 active investigations; commends the fruitful activities of the EPPO in 2023, which included 139 indictments, 339 VAT-related cases and over 200 investigations on the implementation of NextGenerationEU; further notes that the EPPO started to bring more perpetrators of Union fraud to justice in front of national courts;

Removed31. Is concerned about the increasing number of EPPO investigations regarding the implementation of Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) (there were 233 investigations at the end of 2023, compared to 15 cases at the end of 2022) and their relevant estimated financial damage (EUR 1,86 billion); stresses that relevant analyses suggest a possible exponential grow of the number of cases of fraud, corruption, double funding and conflict of interest in the next years; calls on the EPPO, the Commission and OLAF to cooperate closely with the aim of minimising as far as possible the impact of such fraudulent misbehaviours on the Union’s budget and safeguarding the achievements of the RRF’s goals;

Added31. Notes that, in 2023, 48 cases concluded with a court conviction (compared to 20 cases in 2022) and that EUR 60 million was the amount confiscated (compared to EUR 2 million in 2021); underlines the importance of a systematic reporting on the follow-up to these cases in terms of the financial measures adopted (confiscation and recovery) to get a clearer understanding of the impact of the EPPO’s actions; welcomes the actions undertaken by the EPPO and the Commission to streamline their communications and make them adequate in relation to the needs of possible administrative procedures for the adoption of measures to restore the Union’s budget affected by financial crimes; reiterates its call on the Commission to assist the EPPO in monitoring and follow-up activities, in such a way that the EPPO’s limited resources are not diverted from their investigative and prosecutorial tasks; encourages the EPPO, where possible and appropriate, to engage in better cooperation with other components of the Union’s anti-fraud architecture, such as Eurojust and Europol, or using - via OLAF- the Anti-Fraud Coordination Services established in the Member States to monitor the results of its investigations;

Added32. Underlines the essential role of asset recovery in the creation of a credible deterrent to organised crime; welcomes the EPPO’s participation in international networks to advance its asset recovery operations further; stresses the need for the Commission to invite the EPPO to participate in the newly created cooperation network on asset recovery and confiscation; notes that the timely and effective investigation and prosecution of fraud-related crimes can generate significant savings for the budget of the Union and the budgets of the Member States;

Added33. Is concerned about the increasing number of EPPO investigations regarding the implementation of Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) (there were 233 investigations at the end of 2023, compared to 15 investigations at the end of 2022) and their relevant estimated financial damage (EUR 1,86 billion); is particularly concerned that, despite the high number of investigations, there is currently no obligation on Member States to report RRF cases to the Commission through the Irregularity Management System (IMS); recalls the obligation to report all the cases of fraud affecting RRF to the EPPO and stresses that such cases are also relevant for EDES-related measures; stresses that the EPPO's workload, initially underestimated, has significantly increased and is expected to continue growing particularly due to the rising number of RRF-related cases and that relevant analyses suggest a possible exponential grow in the number of cases of fraud, corruption, double funding and conflicts of interest in the coming years; calls on the EPPO to systematically analyse and identify fraud patterns in Member States where multiple RRF cases have been detected, and to communicate these patterns to Member States, the Commission and the Recovery and Resilience Task Force, with the objective of enhancing preventative measures to mitigate the risk of fraud; calls on the EPPO, the Commission and OLAF to cooperate closely with the aim of minimising, as much as possible, the impact of such fraudulent misbehaviours on the Union’s budget and safeguarding the achievements of the RRF’s goals; recalls the call on the Commission to provide adequate guidance to the EPPO on how to support and foster the adoption of the remedial measures which follow the EPPO’s independent investigation and prosecution of fraud affecting the RRF and to keep the budgetary authority informed regarding the available options;

34. Understands that the EPPO reacted to Parliament’s call for a better monitoring system and enhanced follow-up of investigations and prosecutions by launching a project on digital statistical tools which would allow better use of the data that it processes, and the development of a strategic analysis capacity to identify the patterns of fraud; shares the EPPO’s view that the success of those efforts are directly linked to the available resources and calls on the Commission to take these activities and the related costs into consideration for the future proposals on Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 and on budgetary endowments;

35. Appreciates the EPPO’s efforts in the setting up key performance indicators (KPIs) for both operational and administrative activities with specific targets due to its peculiar business model; maintains its remark on the need for operational activities to include reference to the amounts seized, confiscated and eventually recovered to the Union’s budget, the safeguard of which is ultimately the raison d'être of the Union’s anti-fraud architecture of which the EPPO is an important component; understands that monitoring and follow-up action, including reporting on the recovery results, are not in the EPPO’s remit and require resources and specific prerogatives that are not part of the EPPO’s mission; asks the Commission to support the EPPO in identifying indicators linked to the achievement of that essential task, stressing that a better monitoring system, and more data of good granularity and aggregated in cluster per typology of misconduct, sector of interest or geographical area, could allow making more tangible the impact of the EPPO’s investigations and allow the identification of patterns of fraud;