EPPO probes Bulgarian rail deals

Bulgaria's transport minister Georgi Peev says the European Public Prosecutor's Office, the EU body that prosecutes criminal fraud involving European funds, is investigating 17 railway contracts signed between 2019 and 2021. According to Peev, Bulgaria's national railway infrastructure company, NKZHI, took on about €765 million in railway obligations without having the money secured to pay for them (24 Chasa, Boulevard Bulgaria).

The established issue, at least on the public record, is not yet criminal fraud. It is more basic: a state company signed contracts it could not finance. Whether European money was then misused, lost, or put at risk is the question now moving into criminal territory.

EPPO has not confirmed the investigation itself (Fakti). The claim rests on Peev's public statements and Bulgarian media reports. But the minister gave the number of contracts, said his ministry would fully cooperate with prosecutors, and put the matter on the record. That looks less like a prosecutor's leak and more like a new government laying out the liabilities inherited from its predecessor.

If violations are confirmed, Bulgaria could face repayments or EU funding cuts of more than €400 million linked to the contracts (BNR News, Fakti). The exposed EU funding programme has not yet been identified. OLAF, the EU's administrative anti-fraud office, is separately checking two contracts for rolling-stock delivery.

An EU Prosecutor Working Through National Courts

EPPO is not an EU police force. Its strategic direction comes from Luxembourg, but cases are run inside member states by European Delegated Prosecutors who work through national police, national courts and national rules on evidence (EPPO, Regulation 2017/1939). In Bulgaria, this means an EU prosecutorial chain can take charge when European money is involved, while Bulgarian investigators and judges still have to carry the case.

That hybrid model matters in the rail file. EPPO can steer the investigation and make it harder for a politically awkward case to disappear domestically. It cannot repair weak procurement files, missing paperwork or badly recorded decisions after the fact. In 2024, the office processed 6,547 crime reports and detected estimated damage of more than €24.8 billion, according to its annual report. Those are suspected amounts, not proven losses. The distance between suspicion and courtroom proof is where many cases fall apart, especially when the original records were never built to survive scrutiny.

For a country like Malta, which also lives with the direct consequences of EU oversight, the point is familiar. EU funds are not abstract Brussels money; they pay for roads, infrastructure, training schemes and public projects that quickly become domestic politics. EPPO membership gives participating states an uncomfortable but useful backstop: suspected fraud involving EU money can be pursued through a channel partly insulated from local political pressure. Countries outside the system, such as Hungary, leave those cases to national prosecutors alone (EPPO participating states).

Where Execution Breaks Down

Bulgaria's railway file points to a weakness that goes beyond one country: the long execution chain beneath political funding decisions. Procurement, permits, financing checks, delivery, payment claims, audit trails. The European Court of Auditors has repeatedly flagged weaknesses in the systems meant to detect and punish fraud against EU money (ECA), and EPPO has carried out coordinated raids across several member states in funds investigations (Euronews). Romania is facing parallel warnings that it could lose billions in recovery funds if projects miss EU payment deadlines (Libertatea).

A project can clear formal national approval while the real question is left untreated: was the money actually secured, and could the state deliver what it signed? In Bulgaria's case, Peev's own account says the answer was no.

The 17 contracts, the contractors, the specific EU funding programmes and the suspected offences have not been disclosed. Until EPPO or a court confirms the scope of the file, the firmest conclusion is the one Peev himself put on the table: Bulgaria's railway system absorbed hundreds of millions in commitments it could not back. The criminal investigation will decide whether EU funds followed those commitments, and whether anyone is held responsible.