Conference "The Architecture for the Protection of the European Union's Financial Interests" at the University of Poitiers

The protection of the European Union’s financial interests (PIFUE) forms a framework combining a common regulatory basis, obligations incumbent upon Member States and a set of specialised institutions. This framework aims to ensure consistent and effective protection of the EU budget, regardless of the Member State in which fraud or irregularities occur. The ‘financial interests of the Union’ thus cover all budget revenue and expenditure, including the Structural Funds and exceptional instruments such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility, meaning that the prevention and prosecution of fraud, corruption and irregularities have become a key issue of legitimacy and sound management. Centred in particular on Article 325 TFEU and the regulations relating to the EU Anti-Fraud Policy (PIFUE), a regulatory framework has been established which requires Member States to implement measures for prevention, detection, investigation and sanction, whilst coordinating the actions of national authorities with those of the Union’s bodies.

At the institutional level, the architecture of the EU Anti-Fraud Policy brings together national supervisory and prosecuting authorities, the Commission’s services, OLAF (which is responsible for administrative investigations) and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (which has jurisdiction over criminal prosecutions relating to serious breaches of the EU budget), as well as the European Court of Auditors and the mechanisms for auditing and budgetary conditionality. The use of the term ‘architecture’ thus serves to emphasise that the issue at stake is not merely the existence of rules, but their coherent interconnection and their practical effectiveness.

It is against this backdrop that the conference ‘The Architecture of the Protection of the European Union’s Financial Interests’, organised as part of the ANR EUBUPRO programme (23-CE53-0004) on 26 November 2026 at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the University of Poitiers, under the academic supervision of Professors Loïc Levoyer (Professor of Public Law at the University of Poitiers) and Pierre-Yves Monjal (Professor of Public Law at the University of Tours, Jean Monnet European Chair). Three round-table discussions will take place in succession, bringing together researchers and practitioners to discuss three key aspects of the PIFUE: its structure, its scope and its criminal law dimension.