OLAF

This chapter analyses OLAF’s EU-level legal framework. This top-down analysis focuses on providing the answers to the analytical sub-research questions presented in Chap. 1 by testing the assumptions on which they are based. A study of composite enforcement procedures, which by definition comprise the interlinkages between legal orders, cannot satisfy itself only with a study of EU law, but also demands an examination of national law. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to provide the first ‘half’ of the answers to the analytical sub-research questions. I mean to do so by looking down from the top of OLAF’s legal framework (‘the cathedral’) to see where and how deep down its legal framework links up with national law and authorities. Chapters 3 and 4 on the Netherlands and Germany, respectively, provide for the bottom-up second ‘half’ of the analytical answers we are looking for through a study of the connecting national legal frameworks (‘the bazaar’). The findings of this chapter and Chaps. 3 and 4 give me all the (analytical) pieces necessary to see whether the person concerned’s fundamental rights are protected in composite enforcement procedures (the evaluative goal) and, eventually, to see whether the OLAF and national legal frameworks need to be changed and, if so, how these changes are to be pursued (the normative goal). The normative and evaluative goals and accompanying sub-research questions are the subject of Chaps. 5 and 6 respectively. This chapter is structured as follows. Section 2.2 considers OLAF’s Union law institutional design and architecture which is necessary to understand OLAF’s operations and the role of national authorities therein. Section 2.3 examines how OLAF obtains evidence. With respect to the obtainment of evidence the main concern is both the possibilities EU law creates for the gathering (i.e. the powers) of evidence and the limits it imposes (i.e. defence rights and procedural safeguards) in both OLAF’s investigation and coordination cases. Section 2.4 discusses how OLAF bridges the gap from its investigation and coordination cases to punitive follow-up at the national level. Section 2.5 discusses what OLAF’s legal framework has to say about how evidence obtained by OLAF can be admitted in national punitive proceedings. Section 2.6 discusses judicial control. Section 2.7 offers some concluding remarks.