Tuesday

28th Mar 2023

EU backs setting up prosecutor's office

  • The EU-level prosecutor will have powers to investigate, prosecute and bring to justice anyone committing fraud that involves the EU budget or cross-border VAT. (Photo: Europol)

The EU is moving ahead with plans to set up a European public prosecutor to probe financial crimes against the EU budget.

Heads of state and government in Brussels on Thursday (9 March) agreed to allow a group of member states to set up the office following years of deadlock in a debate that often revolved around broader sensibilities of national sovereignty.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The latest agreement reached at an EU summit opens the door for an EU-level prosecutor with powers to investigate, prosecute and bring to justice anyone committing fraud that involves the EU budget or cross-border VAT. An estimated €50 billion VAT revenues are lost each year due to cross-border fraud, says the European Commission.

The move is largely procedural but also symbolic for an EU currently debating the possibility of a so-called multi-speed Europe, where some countries can forge ahead with deeper integration.

Sweden earlier this year opposed the European Public Prosecutors Office (EPPO) along with others like Poland, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands voicing objections.

Those objections doomed the launch of an EU-wide EPPO, requiring unanimity among member states.

But supporters have since opted to a launch an EPPO that requires the backing of only nine EU states.

Some 17 EU states in a letter earlier this year piled on the pressure for EU summit leaders to endorse a smaller EPPO.

That letter was signed by Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

Cyprus and Portugal have yet to sign it because of internal procedures first required to validate it.

Ill at ease

The big contender is Italy.

The country's justice minister Andrea Orlando wants a much stronger EPPO with more powers ascribed than what is currently proposed.

It means, among other things, that the Italian version of the EPPO would have greater discretion on investigations. They are also more keen to allow the EPPO to probe other possible issues like organised crime.

The office, as it now stands, is a collegial structure made up of two levels, with a chief prosecutor supported by two deputies at the top. It will also integrate into national justice systems.

The commission is set to revise the text behind the prosecutor to accommodate the Italians in an effort to get them on board.

"Now that we have a core group of countries that want to go forward with it, we will rework the text a bit", said one EU official.

The plan is to reach an agreement among the co-legislators - the member states and the European Parliament - before the end of the year, with a 2019 launch date.

But the possibility of expanding the EPPO's powers has put some EU states ill at ease.

Malta, which holds the EU presidency until the end of June, has to juggle between opposing the EPPO and supporting it at the same time.

Minister of justice Owen Bonnici told reporters in January that Malta is part of a minority that won't join the EPPO.

"Malta believes that tax issues should be a full competence of the member states but that doesn't mean as the presidency, keep in mind that I am wearing the hat of the presidency of the Council now, will act as an honest broker to make sure that this office is born", he said.

EU prosecutor likely to expand powers

A top EU official on Thursday said the future EU-wide public prosecutor may expand into other domains aside from combatting fraud.

Thirteen states join EU prosecutor's office

Justice ministers from 13 EU member states have confirmed they will take part in the European Public Prosecutor's Office with another three set to join in the next few days.

MEPs to debate Portugal's EU prosecutor controversy

Leading centre-right and liberal MEPs have called on Lisbon to clarify the appointment of José Guerra as its EU public prosecutor, amid efforts to depoliticise the new anti-fraud body.

New EU public prosecutor has four staff for 3,000 cases

Laura Kovesi who heads the new European Public Prosecutor's Office, tasked to tackle fraud linked to VAT, money laundering, and corruption across the EU, warned she is dangerously understaffed and underfunded.

Opinion

Why can't we stop marches glorifying Nazism on EU streets?

Every year, neo-Nazis come together to pay tribute to Nazi war criminals and their collaborators, from Benito Mussolini to Rudolf Hess, Ante Pavelić, Hristo Lukov, and of course Adolf Hitler, in events that have become rituals on the extreme-right calendar.

Latest News

  1. New measures to shield the EU against money laundering
  2. What does China really want? Perhaps we could try asking
  3. Dear EU, the science is clear: burning wood for energy is bad
  4. Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity
  5. Finnish elections and Hungary's Nato vote in focus This WEEK
  6. EU's new critical raw materials act could be a recipe for conflict
  7. Okay, alright, AI might be useful after all
  8. Von der Leyen pledges to help return Ukrainian children

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality
  6. Promote UkraineInvitation to the National Demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine on 25.02.2023

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Azerbaijan Embassy9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting
  2. EFBWWEU Social Dialogue review – publication of the European Commission package and joint statement of ETUFs
  3. Oxfam InternationalPan Africa Program Progress Report 2022 - Post Covid and Beyond
  4. WWFWWF Living Planet Report
  5. Europan Patent OfficeHydrogen patents for a clean energy future: A global trend analysis of innovation along hydrogen value chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us