The European Anti-fraud Office (commonly known as OLAF, from French: Office de Lutte Anti-Fraude) is charged by the European Union with protecting the financial interests of the European Union: Its tasks are to fight fraud affecting the EU budget, as well as corruption and any other irregular activity, including misconduct, within the European Institutions, in an accountable, transparent and cost-effective manner.

The Anti-fraud Office achieves its mission by conducting, in full independence, internal and external investigations. It also organises close and regular co-operation between the competent authorities of the Member States in order to co-ordinate their activities. OLAF supplies Member States with the necessary support and technical know-how to help them in their anti-fraud activities. It contributes to the design of the anti-fraud strategy of the European Union and takes the necessary initiatives to strengthen the relevant legislation.

It is an administrative investigative body. It has no judicial or disciplinary powers and it cannot oblige national prosecutors to act.

Marta Andreasen (born 26 November 1954) is an Argentine-born Spanish accountant, employed in January 2002 by the European Commission as Chief Accountant, and notable for raising concerns about flaws in the commission's accounting system which she felt left the commission vulnerable to potential fraud. She was subsequently elected as a Member of the European Parliament for United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in 2009.

She qualified in 1977 as a certified public accountant in Buenos Aires, then worked for five years as an auditor at Price Waterhouse. From 1982 on she worked as a finance and administration manager, then as a regional finance director at various companies, such as Rockwell Automation and Lotus Development, mostly in Spain.^{[citation needed]}

She joined the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1998, where she reported serious problems with its accounting system, raised her concerns with the management and suggested ways of reforms. After initial resistance, Arthur Andersen were assigned for an outside analysis. In August 2000, their report described the OECD's internal accounting systems as outdated and inadequate. Andreasen, however, was suspended from her job for 15 months.^{[citation needed]}

Georgios ("Jorgo") Chatzimarkakis (born on 21 April 1966 in Duisburg) is a German politician of Greek descent, Member of the European Parliament with the Free Democratic Party of Germany (part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe).

Chatzimarkakis was born and grew up in Duisburg. In 1993 he graduated as M.A. in political science at the philosophical faculty of the University of Bonn. He supplemented his studies with a visiting research fellowship at the University of Oxford under the auspices of Ralf Dahrendorf in 1995. From 1993 to 1996 Chatzimarkakis worked as a science policy officer at the Bundestag.
From 1996 to 1998, he was member of the planning department of the Foreign Office of Germany. Chatzimarkakis held a lectureship at the University of Duisburg from 1997 to 2001, during which time he also worked on his doctoral thesis on Informational Globalism - A cooperation model of global governance using the example of electronic commerce (Informationeller Globalismus - Kooperationsmodell globaler Ordnungspolitik am Beispiel des Elektronischen Geschäftsverkehrs ). In 2011 the University of Bonn revoked his doctoral title. The committee charged him guilty of plagiarism in his thesis.

John Dalli (born 5 October 1948) is the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy and a former Maltese politician who served as Cabinet Minister in various Maltese governments between 1987 and 2010.

Dalli was first elected to the House of Representatives of Malta in 1987 on behalf of the Nationalist Party and since then he has been re-elected in five successive elections: in 1992, 1996, 1998, 2003 and 2008. He has served as Parliamentary Secretary for Industry (1987–1990), Minister of Economic Affairs (1990–92), Minister of Finance (1992–1996, 1998–2004) and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Investment Promotion (2004). During his tenure at the Ministry of Finance (the longest in Maltese political history), Dalli is best remembered for his modernisation of the taxation system through the introduction of VAT in 1994 and again in 1998.

From 1987 to 1996 and from 1996 to 2004 Dalli served as co-chairman of the Libyan-Maltese Joint Commission, during which time he led the renegotiation of all political and economic agreements between Malta and Libya to bring them in line with the EU acquis.