Romania reported the highest number of suspected fraud cases regarding EU spending
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Romania reported the highest value in the European Union for irregularities classified as fraudulent in European spending in 2025, according to the annual report of the Commission on the protection of the EU budget. The 179 cases communicated by the Romanian authorities involved 58.65 million euros, almost a third of the total value reported by the 27 member states in this category.
In short, Romania reported 179 irregularities classified as fraudulent in EU spending, with a total value of 58.65 million euros. Both figures were the highest among member states in 2025. The cohesion and fisheries policy accounted for 100 of the cases and 54.23 million euros. Another 74 cases, with a value of 4.39 million euros, concerned agricultural spending. The Czech Republic reported the second largest value, at 43.85 million euros, followed by Slovakia with 31.63 million euros. The figures represent irregularities that the authorities classified as suspected or established fraud. They do not mean that the entire amount was lost, that all allegations were confirmed, or that convictions were pronounced. The Commission specifies that the data should not be used to measure the actual level of fraud in each country. More cases may reflect more active controls, better detection capacity, and differences between national reporting practices.
Romania transmitted 74 cases regarding agriculture, 100 in cohesion and fisheries policy, four in other domestic policies, and one related to the European Neighbourhood Instrument.
The total value of 58,647,216 euros was almost entirely made up of cases regarding cohesion and fisheries. These amounted to 54,230,295 euros, equivalent to over 92% of the amount reported by Romania for spending classified as fraudulent.
Agricultural cases involved 4,393,150 euros. The irregularity related to the neighbourhood policy had a value of 23,771 euros, while the four cases recorded in other domestic policies had no associated amount in the Commission's table.
At the level of the entire Union, member states reported 638 irregularities classified as fraudulent in spending, with a total value of 182.52 million euros.
Romania accounted for approximately 28% of the number of cases and 32% of the value reported by all 27 states. These proportions describe the information entered into the European reporting systems, not an estimate of the total existing fraud in the country or in the Union.
The Czech Republic reported 71 cases regarding spending, with a value of 43.85 million euros. Almost the entire amount came from cohesion and fisheries policy.
Slovakia communicated 24 cases, valued at 31.63 million euros, of which 21 concerned cohesion and fisheries.
Portugal reported 32 cases totaling 12.23 million euros, while Hungary reported 27 cases with a value of 8.89 million euros. Poland communicated 33 cases associated with an amount of 6.36 million euros.
The large number of cases is not always accompanied by a high value. The Netherlands reported 83 cases in agriculture, but the total amount associated with them was approximately 941,000 euros.
France reported 12 irregularities in spending, valued at 1.85 million euros, while Germany communicated 66 cases associated with an amount of 5.16 million euros.
Ireland, Cyprus, Luxembourg, and Malta did not report any irregularities classified as fraudulent regarding European spending for 2025. The absence of reported cases does not demonstrate that there were no frauds or investigations in those countries.
The Commission explains that the indicator measures the results of the activity of states in identification and reporting. Differences may arise from the intensity of controls, the structure of funded programs, administrative capacity, the timing of when a case is reported, and how authorities classify a suspicion.
A low detection rate may indicate a low level of irregularities, but it may also be associated with weaker control systems, insufficient resources, or incomplete reporting. A high rate may show that authorities check more projects and communicate suspicions more quickly.
The term irregularity classified as fraudulent should not be confused with a final conviction. For funds jointly managed by the Commission and member states, the category mainly includes suspected or established fraud by the reporting authority.
A case can be entered into the system after an initial administrative or judicial assessment that finds the existence of concrete facts and leads to the opening of a procedure for verifying fraud.
The investigation may later confirm intentional behavior, may modify the amount involved, or may conclude that the facts do not constitute fraud. Some cases remain open for several years due to the complexity of verifications, judicial procedures, and recovery of funds.
The amount associated with an irregularity represents the financial value affected or potentially affected, under the conditions reported by the competent authority. It does not automatically indicate the definitive damage suffered by the EU budget.
Funds can be stopped before payment, withdrawn from a reimbursement request, corrected by replacing the funded project, or recovered from the beneficiary. In other situations, the amount remains in litigation until the procedures are completed.
The Commission's report shows that the cohesion and fisheries policy was the main area of reported fraudulent irregularities in European spending. At the EU level, 334 cases were communicated, with a value of 160.33 million euros.
Romania accounted for almost 30% of the number of cases and approximately 34% of the reported value for this category.
Cohesion policy finances infrastructure, regional development, support for businesses, energy, research, digitalization, employment, and social inclusion. Projects are managed through multiannual programs, and controls can continue after the end of the period in which the funds were granted.
Most of the cases reported in 2025 concerned the previous budget period 2014–2020. The implementation of the 2021–2027 programs started more slowly, and only about 10% of the irregularities communicated in cohesion policy were related to the current funding period.
In the cases of cohesion classified as fraudulent, the most common problems concerned supporting documents. Other irregularities were related to non-compliance with contracts and non-implementation of activities for which funding had been granted.
Conflicts of interest represented the main category of violations regarding ethics and integrity. Irregularities in public procurement were frequently reported, but most were not classified as fraud.
The first cases communicated for the 2021–2027 programs included digitalization of small and medium-sized enterprises, energy efficiency, research, and innovation.
By the financial value involved, the report highlights projects for the development and internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises and investments regarding water supply for human consumption.
These findings describe the areas in which cases have been detected up to the present. They do not mean that all projects in digitalization, energy, research, or water infrastructure present problems.
In agriculture, member states reported a total of 295 cases classified as fraudulent, with a value of 21.84 million euros. Romania communicated 74 of these, being the second country after the number of cases, following the Netherlands, which reported 83.
The value of agricultural cases reported by Romania, at 4.39 million euros, was the highest among member states. Hungary followed with 5.44 million euros, having only nine cases; its value was, in fact, higher than that of Romania in agriculture, so Romania's position as a leader concerns the total of European spending, not each category separately.
Agricultural cases classified as fraudulent mainly concerned false supporting documents and false applications. In direct payments, suspicions frequently concerned the documents used to demonstrate eligibility.
In market measures, the frauds reported in 2025 focused especially on the wine sector and beekeeping. In rural development, over half of the cases classified as fraudulent involved applications or supporting documents, forgery being the most frequently encountered pattern.
The report notes that Romania, France, Estonia, Italy, and Poland together communicated approximately 69% of the agricultural irregularities classified as fraudulent in the last five years.
The concentration of reporting in a small number of states may have different explanations. It may reflect the size of the agricultural sector, the volume of funds, the type of controls, and the practice of authorities in entering cases into the European system.
Risk analysis, information received from whistleblowers, and materials published by the press also contribute, albeit to a lesser extent, to the detection of agricultural fraud. Most cases are identified through the regular controls of the authorities.
Overall, the Commission's report shows that Romania also communicated 833 irregularities in EU spending that were not classified as fraud, with a value of 123.45 million euros.
This category included 507 cases in agriculture, with 39.25 million euros, and 317 cases in cohesion and fisheries, with 81.44 million euros.
Adding the two categories shows that Romania reported 1,012 irregularities regarding European spending, classified or unclassified as fraud, with a combined value of approximately 182.1 million euros.
This amount does not automatically represent lost money and cannot be directly compared with the value of cases being processed at the European Public Prosecutor's Office. The systems use different definitions, periods, and procedural stages.
The data in the Commission's report mainly comes from the Irregularity Management System, in which national authorities enter cases regarding jointly managed funds.
Investigations by the European Public Prosecutor's Office may occur before a case is reported in this system, may cover several years, and may include estimated damages that have not yet been established by a final decision.
2EU previously reported that the European Public Prosecutor's Office had a total of 535 active cases related to Romania at the end of 2025, with estimated damages of 6.05 billion euros. Approximately 5.03 billion euros were associated with investigations regarding spending, including European funds.
The new information does not update those damages and does not describe the same set of cases. It shows what irregularities have been entered by the Romanian authorities into the Commission's reporting systems for the year 2025.
The report does not provide, for each Romanian case, the name of the beneficiary, the program, the project, the region, the status of the investigation, or the amount recovered. This information cannot be deduced from the aggregated table.
Nor is the number of individuals prosecuted or convicted in connection with the 179 cases presented separately for Romania.
The Commission shows that at the European level, information about penalties remains incomplete. States have communicated details regarding penalties for approximately half of the fraudulent irregularities closed in the period 2015–2025.
Investigations and criminal procedures are often lengthy. For cohesion policy, only 19% of the fraudulent irregularities reported between 2015 and 2025 were completely closed, including from the perspective of recovering funds.
Once the procedures are completed, the rate of protection of funds through recovery, withdrawal, or correction exceeded 95% in cohesion and fisheries policy.
The Commission recommends that authorities report to prosecutors including attempts at fraud stopped before payment. Preventing financial loss should not lead to abandoning investigations into individuals who attempted to obtain the funds.
States are invited to use IT tools, risk analysis, and checks on previously conducted transactions more intensively. The report finds that these methods still have insufficient potential utilized in identifying fraud.
National authorities must cooperate with the European Anti-Fraud Office and the European Public Prosecutor's Office, communicate suspicions without delay, and allow access to relevant data regarding fund management.
The annual report on protecting the financial interests of the EU brings together information on the prevention, detection, investigation, and sanctioning of fraud and irregularities affecting European revenues and expenditures.
The data from the national annex regarding expenditures were extracted from the Irregularity Management System on March 8, 2026. The information regarding customs revenues had a reference date of March 2, 2026.
The national table does not include expenditures directly managed by the Commission nor all investigations regarding the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism. Suspected frauds in the RRF are not subject to the same reporting obligation to the Commission as jointly managed funds.
Romania separately reported 11 fraudulent cases regarding customs revenues, with a value of approximately 361,000 euros. These are not included in the sum of 58.65 million euros regarding expenditures.
Comparisons between states should be made with caution. National systems differ in the organization of controls, the flow of information between administration and prosecutors, and the timing of when a suspicion is entered into the European database.
Romania's position indicates the highest value reported for 2025 in the category of expenditures classified as fraudulent. It does not establish that Romania had the highest actual fraud, the greatest definitive damage, or the weakest protection of European funds.
In short, Romania reported 179 irregularities classified as fraudulent in EU spending, with a total value of 58.65 million euros. Both figures were the highest among member states in 2025. The cohesion and fisheries policy accounted for 100 of the cases and 54.23 million euros. Another 74 cases, with a value of 4.39 million euros, concerned agricultural spending. The Czech Republic reported the second largest value, at 43.85 million euros, followed by Slovakia with 31.63 million euros. The figures represent irregularities that the authorities classified as suspected or established fraud. They do not mean that the entire amount was lost, that all allegations were confirmed, or that convictions were pronounced. The Commission specifies that the data should not be used to measure the actual level of fraud in each country. More cases may reflect more active controls, better detection capacity, and differences between national reporting practices.
Romania transmitted 74 cases regarding agriculture, 100 in cohesion and fisheries policy, four in other domestic policies, and one related to the European Neighbourhood Instrument.
The total value of 58,647,216 euros was almost entirely made up of cases regarding cohesion and fisheries. These amounted to 54,230,295 euros, equivalent to over 92% of the amount reported by Romania for spending classified as fraudulent.
Agricultural cases involved 4,393,150 euros. The irregularity related to the neighbourhood policy had a value of 23,771 euros, while the four cases recorded in other domestic policies had no associated amount in the Commission's table.
At the level of the entire Union, member states reported 638 irregularities classified as fraudulent in spending, with a total value of 182.52 million euros.
Romania accounted for approximately 28% of the number of cases and 32% of the value reported by all 27 states. These proportions describe the information entered into the European reporting systems, not an estimate of the total existing fraud in the country or in the Union.
The Czech Republic reported 71 cases regarding spending, with a value of 43.85 million euros. Almost the entire amount came from cohesion and fisheries policy.
Slovakia communicated 24 cases, valued at 31.63 million euros, of which 21 concerned cohesion and fisheries.
Portugal reported 32 cases totaling 12.23 million euros, while Hungary reported 27 cases with a value of 8.89 million euros. Poland communicated 33 cases associated with an amount of 6.36 million euros.
The large number of cases is not always accompanied by a high value. The Netherlands reported 83 cases in agriculture, but the total amount associated with them was approximately 941,000 euros.
France reported 12 irregularities in spending, valued at 1.85 million euros, while Germany communicated 66 cases associated with an amount of 5.16 million euros.
Ireland, Cyprus, Luxembourg, and Malta did not report any irregularities classified as fraudulent regarding European spending for 2025. The absence of reported cases does not demonstrate that there were no frauds or investigations in those countries.
The Commission explains that the indicator measures the results of the activity of states in identification and reporting. Differences may arise from the intensity of controls, the structure of funded programs, administrative capacity, the timing of when a case is reported, and how authorities classify a suspicion.
A low detection rate may indicate a low level of irregularities, but it may also be associated with weaker control systems, insufficient resources, or incomplete reporting. A high rate may show that authorities check more projects and communicate suspicions more quickly.
The term irregularity classified as fraudulent should not be confused with a final conviction. For funds jointly managed by the Commission and member states, the category mainly includes suspected or established fraud by the reporting authority.
A case can be entered into the system after an initial administrative or judicial assessment that finds the existence of concrete facts and leads to the opening of a procedure for verifying fraud.
The investigation may later confirm intentional behavior, may modify the amount involved, or may conclude that the facts do not constitute fraud. Some cases remain open for several years due to the complexity of verifications, judicial procedures, and recovery of funds.
The amount associated with an irregularity represents the financial value affected or potentially affected, under the conditions reported by the competent authority. It does not automatically indicate the definitive damage suffered by the EU budget.
Funds can be stopped before payment, withdrawn from a reimbursement request, corrected by replacing the funded project, or recovered from the beneficiary. In other situations, the amount remains in litigation until the procedures are completed.
The Commission's report shows that the cohesion and fisheries policy was the main area of reported fraudulent irregularities in European spending. At the EU level, 334 cases were communicated, with a value of 160.33 million euros.
Romania accounted for almost 30% of the number of cases and approximately 34% of the reported value for this category.
Cohesion policy finances infrastructure, regional development, support for businesses, energy, research, digitalization, employment, and social inclusion. Projects are managed through multiannual programs, and controls can continue after the end of the period in which the funds were granted.
Most of the cases reported in 2025 concerned the previous budget period 2014–2020. The implementation of the 2021–2027 programs started more slowly, and only about 10% of the irregularities communicated in cohesion policy were related to the current funding period.
In the cases of cohesion classified as fraudulent, the most common problems concerned supporting documents. Other irregularities were related to non-compliance with contracts and non-implementation of activities for which funding had been granted.
Conflicts of interest represented the main category of violations regarding ethics and integrity. Irregularities in public procurement were frequently reported, but most were not classified as fraud.
The first cases communicated for the 2021–2027 programs included digitalization of small and medium-sized enterprises, energy efficiency, research, and innovation.
By the financial value involved, the report highlights projects for the development and internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises and investments regarding water supply for human consumption.
These findings describe the areas in which cases have been detected up to the present. They do not mean that all projects in digitalization, energy, research, or water infrastructure present problems.
In agriculture, member states reported a total of 295 cases classified as fraudulent, with a value of 21.84 million euros. Romania communicated 74 of these, being the second country after the number of cases, following the Netherlands, which reported 83.
The value of agricultural cases reported by Romania, at 4.39 million euros, was the highest among member states. Hungary followed with 5.44 million euros, having only nine cases; its value was, in fact, higher than that of Romania in agriculture, so Romania's position as a leader concerns the total of European spending, not each category separately.
Agricultural cases classified as fraudulent mainly concerned false supporting documents and false applications. In direct payments, suspicions frequently concerned the documents used to demonstrate eligibility.
In market measures, the frauds reported in 2025 focused especially on the wine sector and beekeeping. In rural development, over half of the cases classified as fraudulent involved applications or supporting documents, forgery being the most frequently encountered pattern.
The report notes that Romania, France, Estonia, Italy, and Poland together communicated approximately 69% of the agricultural irregularities classified as fraudulent in the last five years.
The concentration of reporting in a small number of states may have different explanations. It may reflect the size of the agricultural sector, the volume of funds, the type of controls, and the practice of authorities in entering cases into the European system.
Risk analysis, information received from whistleblowers, and materials published by the press also contribute, albeit to a lesser extent, to the detection of agricultural fraud. Most cases are identified through the regular controls of the authorities.
Overall, the Commission's report shows that Romania also communicated 833 irregularities in EU spending that were not classified as fraud, with a value of 123.45 million euros.
This category included 507 cases in agriculture, with 39.25 million euros, and 317 cases in cohesion and fisheries, with 81.44 million euros.
Adding the two categories shows that Romania reported 1,012 irregularities regarding European spending, classified or unclassified as fraud, with a combined value of approximately 182.1 million euros.
This amount does not automatically represent lost money and cannot be directly compared with the value of cases being processed at the European Public Prosecutor's Office. The systems use different definitions, periods, and procedural stages.
The data in the Commission's report mainly comes from the Irregularity Management System, in which national authorities enter cases regarding jointly managed funds.
Investigations by the European Public Prosecutor's Office may occur before a case is reported in this system, may cover several years, and may include estimated damages that have not yet been established by a final decision.
2EU previously reported that the European Public Prosecutor's Office had a total of 535 active cases related to Romania at the end of 2025, with estimated damages of 6.05 billion euros. Approximately 5.03 billion euros were associated with investigations regarding spending, including European funds.
The new information does not update those damages and does not describe the same set of cases. It shows what irregularities have been entered by the Romanian authorities into the Commission's reporting systems for the year 2025.
The report does not provide, for each Romanian case, the name of the beneficiary, the program, the project, the region, the status of the investigation, or the amount recovered. This information cannot be deduced from the aggregated table.
Nor is the number of individuals prosecuted or convicted in connection with the 179 cases presented separately for Romania.
The Commission shows that at the European level, information about penalties remains incomplete. States have communicated details regarding penalties for approximately half of the fraudulent irregularities closed in the period 2015–2025.
Investigations and criminal procedures are often lengthy. For cohesion policy, only 19% of the fraudulent irregularities reported between 2015 and 2025 were completely closed, including from the perspective of recovering funds.
Once the procedures are completed, the rate of protection of funds through recovery, withdrawal, or correction exceeded 95% in cohesion and fisheries policy.
The Commission recommends that authorities report to prosecutors including attempts at fraud stopped before payment. Preventing financial loss should not lead to abandoning investigations into individuals who attempted to obtain the funds.
States are invited to use IT tools, risk analysis, and checks on previously conducted transactions more intensively. The report finds that these methods still have insufficient potential utilized in identifying fraud.
National authorities must cooperate with the European Anti-Fraud Office and the European Public Prosecutor's Office, communicate suspicions without delay, and allow access to relevant data regarding fund management.
The annual report on protecting the financial interests of the EU brings together information on the prevention, detection, investigation, and sanctioning of fraud and irregularities affecting European revenues and expenditures.
The data from the national annex regarding expenditures were extracted from the Irregularity Management System on March 8, 2026. The information regarding customs revenues had a reference date of March 2, 2026.
The national table does not include expenditures directly managed by the Commission nor all investigations regarding the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism. Suspected frauds in the RRF are not subject to the same reporting obligation to the Commission as jointly managed funds.
Romania separately reported 11 fraudulent cases regarding customs revenues, with a value of approximately 361,000 euros. These are not included in the sum of 58.65 million euros regarding expenditures.
Comparisons between states should be made with caution. National systems differ in the organization of controls, the flow of information between administration and prosecutors, and the timing of when a suspicion is entered into the European database.
Romania's position indicates the highest value reported for 2025 in the category of expenditures classified as fraudulent. It does not establish that Romania had the highest actual fraud, the greatest definitive damage, or the weakest protection of European funds.
Sources
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