Cooperation with partners and communication

OLAF works continuously with the police, judicial, customs and other authorities in the Member States and at EU and international levels to ensure the success of its investigations. Examples of successful and expanded cooperation with many of these partners can be found in the section “Investigative activities”.

OLAF also works with a wide range of EU institutions and bodies, and the nature of these working relations with various partners varies.

Efficient cooperation with national partners is essential for OLAF’s investigative and policy work. OLAF performs a number of activities to foster good relations and cooperation with the Member States and to improve fraud prevention policy and practice, for example, through the Advisory Committee for the Coordination of Fraud Prevention (COCOLAF), which holds several meetings a year in various formats.

In 2022, two plenary meetings were organised in June and December. The subgroups on reporting and analysis of fraud and other irregularities as well as fraud prevention also met three times during the year. These meetings were good opportunities to discuss the latest trends in irregularities and fraud and the IT tools used to manage EU funds.