The projects must aim at the protection of the EU financial interests by preventing and combatting fraud, corruption and any other illegal activities affecting the EU financial interests.

The applicants are invited to explore the following indicative priority areas:

• digitalisation of administrative reporting processes with a view to reducing the administrative burden, in relation to anti-fraud activities;
• cooperation between the EU’s institutions, bodies, offices and agencies involved in protecting the financial interests of the EU, in particular OLAF and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), and cooperation between these groups and authorities both inside and outside the EU, in particular the customs authorities and other law enforcement bodies of Member States and third countries;
• OLAF’s framework for investigations, specifically as it relates to:
  • the exercise and enforcement of its powers;
  • its cooperation with national partners (in particular customs authorities and other law enforcement bodies);
  • the operation of anti-fraud coordination departments in Member States;
  • the evidential value of OLAF’s reports; (iv) the follow-up to OLAF recommendations or (v) OLAF’s relation with the EPPO;
• activities to improve the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud and corruption, in particular risk-analysis practices and methods for expenditure under the EU budget, as well as training of customs, judicial and law enforcement authorities;
• prevention of and fight against revenue fraud and corruption, with a particular focus on customs data collection, analysis and new challenges in the field (e.g. e-commerce);
• protection of the EU single market from counterfeits, tobacco-smuggling and goods that are a danger to health, security or the environment;
• border protection, customs cooperation and information-sharing designed to protect the EU budget;
• cooperation between customs authorities to prevent and combat certain fraudulent activities that damage the environment or human health (such as illegal waste shipments, illicit trade in endangered species, illegal chemical products and fraudulent/substandard food products);
• cooperation between other authorities for the purposes referred to in the preceding point where the fraudulent activities concerned affect the EU budget;
• prevention of the import of illicit products that
  • do not comply with standards laid down in EU environmental and climate legislation or in EU customs legislation,
  • affect the EU budget;
  • prevention and tackling of fraud and corruption affecting EU funds in the fields of environment, climate and food safety (actions related to the ‘Green Deal’);
• emerging challenges in the prevention of and fight against expenditure fraud and corruption in the context of the current multiannual financial framework and in instruments such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF);
• identification and mitigation of potential double-funding with regard to grants allocated through the RRF, which may overlap with other types of EU funding for Member States;
• national and EU anti-fraud strategies and comparisons of the relevant law enforcement frameworks in different Member States;
• effectiveness of management and control systems and the development of cost-effective approaches, including determining fraud risks and comparing control strategies in selected areas (e.g. research and innovation, environment, cohesion policy, agriculture, public budget support, etc.);
• the general regime of conditionality for protecting the EU budget (i.e. principles of ‘the rule of law’) in the Member States;
• the future of EU anti-fraud policy and programmes: challenges and opportunities;
• effective identification and tackling of money laundering that accompanies fraud, corruption or irregularities affecting the EU budget;
• fraud committed in cyberspace affecting the EU budget;
• OLAF’s added value in investigating cases of serious misconduct by staff and members of the EU’s institutions, bodies, offices and agencies with an impact on the financial interests of the EU.

Within the four topics, the following actions can be funded:

• Specialised training sessions: Developing specialised training sessions to improve knowledge and use of IT tools and to increase anti-fraud data analysis by acquiring new skills and knowledge of specialised methodologies and techniques.
• Conferences, workshops and seminars: Organising conferences, workshops and seminars and creating networks and structural platforms between Member States, candidate countries and potential candidates, other third countries, EU institutions and international organisations in order to:
  • facilitate the exchange of information, experience and best practice, including in anti-fraud and anti-corruption systems and data analysis;
  • create networks and improve coordination between Member States, candidate countries and potential candidates, other third countries, EU institutions and international organisations;
  • facilitate multidisciplinary cooperation and awareness-raising between anti-fraud and anti-corruption practitioners (in particular customs authorities and other law enforcement bodies) and academics on protecting the financial interests of the EU, including support for the Associations for European Criminal Law and for the Protection of EU Financial Interests;
  • raise awareness of this matter among the judiciary and other legal professionals.
• Staff exchanges: Organising staff exchanges between national and regional administrations (including those in candidate countries and potential candidate countries), aiming to help further develop, improve and update staff skills for protecting the financial interests of the EU.
• Research activities and periodical publications: Conducting relevant, high-profile research on topics related to the protection of the financial interests of the EU against fraud, corruption or any other irregularities, including in the area of comparative law. Disseminating relevant information through periodical publications.