Slovenia risks court over EU anti-graft office

Slovenia is currently at the helm of the rotating six-month EU presidency. It had also signed up to the new European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), based in Luxembourg.

The EPPO is mandated to crack down on VAT fraud and theft from the EU budget.

Each participating member state is required to send delegated prosecutors to best investigate criminal cases in their respective countries.

"We are late, we are too late. Normally it was for the 1st of June," noted Reynders of supposed Slovenian appointments.

He said the commission will consider its options at the end of the summer, should the Slovenians still fail to dispatch its prosecutors.

"It must be very fast. Without that, we will have to take some initiatives," said Reynders.

The names of 29 potential Slovenian candidates were submitted domestically at the end of July last year.

But Ljubljana has yet to put forward their official candidates for the post - despite having finalised procedures in early December. Last month, Slovenia's prime minister Janez Janša said they would be appointed by autumn.

His government says the delay is due to new procedures introduced in late May, which were needed to iron out irregularities. They then published a new vacancy notice on 9 July.

However, the foot dragging is testing the patience of some European lawmakers, as well as EPPO chief Laura Kovesi.

In May, Kovesi accused Slovenia of "manifest lack of sincere cooperation".

Last month, German Green MEP Daniel Freund said the delay is due to the fact that one of the initial candidates for the post had previously investigated Janša.

Twenty-two out of the 27 EU states have signed up to the EPPO. Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland have so far refused to join.

Reynders also made other critical remarks.

He said money-laundering cases in Slovenia took too long. His comments followed the publication of a rule-of-law report on Slovenia.

It noted the level of perceived judicial independence had improved. But the report had also highlighted wider issues, including political interference of the media.

"The situation of media freedom and pluralism has been deteriorating," it stated.