PIF crimes are crimes against the financial interests of the European Union. Tackling such crimes is needed in view of the billions of euros that organised crime groups make every year through fraud against the EU budget.

With the EPPO now operational, Eurojust’s competence to support the investigation of PIF crimes is limited but still significant in ensuring that cases involving EU Member States not participating in the EPPO are supported. Eurojust also remains competent to support and facilitate cross-border cooperation with non-EU countries, for Member States participating as well as those not participating in the EPPO. Eurojust and the EPPO have started to work together in their respective mandates to fight PIF crimes. EPPO joined a Eurojust coordination meeting for the first time in September 2021 to work on a case together.

In July 2021, Eurojust was also active in contributing to the European Parliament’s study on Impact of Organised Crime on the EU’s financial Interests. The study examines the impact of organised crime and corruption in terms of the losses to the EU budget through criminal activities. Eurojust provided insights from its casework statistics and the recommendations of its Report on Eurojust’s Casework in Asset Recovery. This contributed to the study’s analysis and assessment of the different and common approaches used by Member States to investigate organised crime.