OLAF at the Crossroads: Action against EU Fraud

The authors offer many insights into the regulatory, operational and institutional opportunities and challenges for OLAF, the European Commission's Anti-Fraud Office. Since OLAF was set up in 1999, significant changes in its functional environment have taken place including in EU criminal law and especially in mutual assistance and substantive criminal law; the reconstruction of Eurojust and Europol through recent Regulations and Memoranda of Cooperation; and the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty.The authors advance the view that OLAF's current legal framework must address these issues adequately.The approach they take is multi-disciplinary.

OLAF is examined here through the prisms of EU politics and national, European and (to some extent) comparative law, focusing not only on the identification of current problems in regulation and procedure but also on its positioning within the context of European integration. Operational issues are then extensively discussed, making this a book for practitioners as well as policy makers and academics.The book addresses the theoretical and practical aspects of anti-fraud actions within both criminal and civil aspects of public law. Although OLAF works within an incomplete EU legal framework and with varying cooperation by national authorities, its staff have devised mechanisms that address some of these issues. Nevertheless, rules covering procedural and operational issues will need to be safeguarded within future legislation.

Constantin Stefanou is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London.


Photo by Lloyd Sturdy.

Helen Xanthaki is Professor of Law at University College London, Dean of Postgraduate Laws Programmes, University of London (Worldwide), Senior Research Fellow, Sir William Dale Centre for Legislative Studies, Member, Committee for the Scrutiny of the Law-making Process, Presidency of the Hellenic Government, and President, International Association for Legislation. She is a leading expert in legislation, law-making and legislative quality. She was the first and only Professor of Legislative Drafting in the UK, and served for 18 years at the Sir William Dale Centre for Legislative Studies (most of them as the Director).
She has published extensively in the field of legislation and legislative drafting, recently as the author of The Lifecycle of Legislation (with Maria Mousmouti and Constantin Stefanou), Better Legislation and the EU (with Jurate Vaiciukaite), Thornton's Legislative Drafting (5th edition) and Art and Technology of Rules and Regulations. She has edited collections: Ulrich Karpen and Helen Xanthaki, Legislation in Europe: A Country by Country Handbook for Scholars and Practitioners (2020, Hart Publishers, Oxford), Ulrich Karpen and Helen Xanthaki (eds), Legislation in Europe: A Handbook for Scholars and Practitioners (2017, Hart Publishers, Oxford), and Helen Xanthaki, (ed) Enhancing Legislative Drafting in the Commonwealth: A Wealth of Innovation (2014, Routledge, London).
She has contributed to most journals in the field, including the Theory and Practice of Legislation, Statute Law Review, Hukim Journal on Legislation, European Journal of Law Reform, The Korean Legal Research Institute Journal of Legislation and Evaluation, and Studi parlamentari e di politica costituzionale.
She has offered evidence to the House of Lords, the House of Commons, the European Commission, the European Parliament (Legal Affairs Committee). She has served as a consultant to the European Commission, the European Parliament, governments, the World Bank and many other national, regional, and international fora.