What is EU fraud? And can OLAF really combat it?

The purpose of this paper is to assess the real reasons behind the widely accepted view that the European Anti‐Fraud Office (OLAF) is not performing to its full potential.

The approach takes the form of consideration of the main points of the regulatory framework and analysis of lacunae in the current and proposed framework.

The paper attributes ineffectiveness, in part, to the conflicting and vague regulatory framework within which OLAF is requested to operate.

The paper provides a list and an analysis of the main lacunae in OLAF's regulatory framework, an operation which has been neglected in the academic literature.