An the 13th floor of a glass skyscraper, above the rooftops of Brussels, Andreas Schwarz asks us into his office and sinks into a beige armchair. Schwarz is deputy head of the Olaf authority and the top German fraud investigator in the EU. A man who mostly works behind the scenes and doesn’t actually give interviews.
Olaf stands for “Office européen de lutte antifraude”, in German: European Anti-Fraud Office. Around 420 men and women work here, customs experts, lawyers, computer forensic scientists and former police officers. Their mission is to protect the EU budget, which is the money of European taxpayers.
Schwarz and his team are investigating cigarette smugglers and customs fraudsters, politicians and civil servants who let themselves be bought, farmers and managers who swindle themselves into EU subsidies. They fight corruption in Ukraine and try to make sure nobody circumvents the sanctions Brussels has imposed on Russia. In short, they take care of almost all major issues in Europe and influence world politics.
WELT: Mr. Schwarz, corruption is a major problem in Ukraine. The country ranks 116th on Transparency International’s list, just behind El Salvador. Is there a risk of all the aid money that Europe is sending to simply seep away?