Currently, our Latvia receives and spends funds from 12 different EU funds. The first place in the number of discrepancies in the conditions of spending money is confidently held by flows from the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund - over the past 5 years, they have counted 3073. But this is not yet a crime!
Management and Control System
A large-scale financial and economic scandal in an EU and NATO member state, involving the current minister, a senior government official, and several key figures in power and business (a total of 10 people), did not occur in a vacuum. At the last government meeting, which was chaired by Evika Silina before her resignation, attempts were made to address the topic of corruption...
However, in the document from the EU Financial Interests Protection Coordination Service (AFCOS), presented by Finance Minister Arvils Aseradens, the activities of the Latvian authorities overseeing the use of funds from Brussels were generally assessed positively:
"The management and control system operates effectively, as the share of discrepancies in all funds is significantly below the materiality threshold of 2%. Moreover, in 2025, improperly paid expenses amounting to €1,971,207.95 were returned, or 82% of the improperly incurred expenses in 2025."
Only 1 "significant case" of double funding and 30 "shortcomings" were noted (of which 28 were procurement violations and 2 were violations of business support norms).
In 2025, within the current financial period (2021-2027), 2 cases of suspected fraud were identified (for comparison: 13 cases were identified in 2024).
"One of the cases was identified under the ESF+ program," the Ministry of Finance noted, "and reported to the State Police, which initiated a criminal process. All incorrectly incurred expenses were withheld from the next payment, thereby not affecting either the national budget or the EU."
Can Be Counted on One Hand
According to information provided by the Prosecutor General's Office and the State Revenue Service, no reports of possible fraudulent or other illegal actions within the EU policy instruments were received by the structural units of the prosecutor's office (at the national level) and the fiscal authority in 2025.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, 2 cases were submitted to the court in 2025 (in 1 case, a plea agreement was confirmed). Additionally, a guilty verdict was issued in 1 case. The State Police initiated work on 5 new criminal processes in 2025 (of which 2 were initiated by the State Police and 3 by the European Public Prosecutor's Office - EPPO) related to possible fraudulent actions concerning EU co-financed projects. Of the criminal processes initiated in 2025, one was referred for prosecution, while 4 are currently under pre-trial investigation.
The initiated criminal processes are mainly classified under Article 177 of the Criminal Law (fraud), with one case additionally classified under Article 195 of the Criminal Law (money laundering). In total, 52 criminal processes (including 27 EPPO processes) related to possible violations in the expenditure of EU funds were under the jurisdiction of the State Police in 2025. In 2025, 10 of these processes were terminated (including 1 criminal process by EPPO), while 4 were referred for prosecution (including 3 criminal processes by EPPO).
Thus, at the end of the past year, there were 39 active criminal processes in the State Police (of which 23 were under the supervision of EPPO). Additionally, in 2025, the State Police received 1 report, which led to an internal investigation, and as a result of the evaluation at the beginning of 2026, a decision was made to initiate a criminal process.
The Bureau for Prevention and Combating Corruption received 4 new criminal processes from European prosecutors last year, with a total of 7 cases related to possible violations in the use of EU funds currently in progress.
Why Do Processes Not Reach Court?
"In general, cases were terminated," the document presented by A. Aseradens states, "as circumstances were established during the investigation that do not allow for a criminal process (Article 377 or Article 392 of the Criminal Procedure Law). 8 criminal processes were terminated because the elements of the crime were not established in the committed act."
It is worth noting that Article 377 provides for 11 possibilities under which a criminal case cannot be continued; in turn, Article 392 contains 6 grounds for terminating a pre-trial criminal case or criminal prosecution.
Additional Oversight
There are also authorities that are not directly punitive but can hit the euro against wrongdoers. In 2025, the Competition Council received 11 reports regarding violations of the Competition Law related to EU funding, 4 of which were referred for in-depth examination. The Procurement Control Bureau had 2 processes concerning Brussels-co-financed projects exceeding €100,000.
As for the notorious "lumber industry case," despite its purely national nature, a significant amount of EU money allocated through the Cohesion Fund for the modernization of industry enterprises was circulating in this sector. Thus, despite the fact that none of the figures involved have yet faced preventive measures, there may be many surprises here...
INDEPENDENT PROSECUTORS
EPPO, the European Public Prosecutor's Office - an independent EU body that investigates crimes against the EU budget (corruption, fraud with funds, money laundering). Based in Luxembourg. EPPO is led by Laura Kovesi, former Prosecutor General of Romania. Denmark and Ireland do not participate in its activities.
