The European Public Prosecutor’s Office to operate without Hungary?

For the time being, five countries are opting out from joining the work of the prosecutor’s office, including Hungary. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office will be entitled to conduct investigations and prosecutions in the territory of the Member States participating in this cooperation.

The launch of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office is a historic step in the fight for the rule of law, and you can bet I will be smiling behind my mask,

said in her opening speech Laura Codruta Kövesi, the head of the prosecution, who previously headed the Romanian anti-corruption prosecutor’s office.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), an investigative body set up to protect EU funds with the participation of 22 EU Member States, will start its operation on 1 June. This was announced at the organisation’s headquarters in Luxembourg.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office is responsible for investigating crimes such as money laundering, corruption, and cross-border VAT fraud in the territory of the Member States, insofar as they concern EU funds.

One of the main reasons for launching the prosecution is that, in 2019 alone, Member States reported a fraud of EUR 460 million affecting the EU budget. This amount will now be even more, as the €750 billion EU Recovery Fund will soon be mobilised.

Vera Jourova, the European Commissioner for Values ​​and Transparency, said that the EPPO, together with the EU’s anti-fraud office (OLAF), the EU police (Europol), and prosecutorial cooperation (Eurojust), is a very strong force in defending the single currency.

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The EPPO will operate as a fully independent office. At least two European Public Prosecutor delegates per Member State will work closely with the Central Office as National Liaison Officers.

According to the cooperating Member States, the independence of the EPPO is key to its success: the EPPO is not part of the EU institutions, so it cannot receive instructions from either them or the national authorities.

Five EU countries are not currently members of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. Denmark and Ireland have a so-called “opt-out” in justice and home affairs, i.e. they are left out of the common rules in these areas. Ireland has the option of an “opt-in”, i.e. a later accession, while Denmark does not. Sweden is not yet a member of the prosecution, but it has indicated that it would be ready to join in 2022.

However, Hungary and Poland appear to be opting out long-term.

Although the Swedes, Danes, and the Irish are not major beneficiaries of the EU budget, i.e. EU funds do not need to be protected in these countries, Hungary and Poland have a significant share of the common coffers. However, Budapest and Warsaw are of the opinion that their own prosecution system is enough to eliminate fraud and corruption cases.

The Hungarian government also argues that, according to the rules, it is conceivable that only foreign prosecutors would act in Hungarian cases, without the knowledge of Hungarian laws and language.

Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kövesi also spoke about this in an interview with Politico. She argued that, although the office’s rules allow delegated prosecutors to help other countries in some cases, it will be virtually impossible for them to act without the knowledge of local procedures and language. The EPPO recently signed a cooperation agreement with the Hungarian Public Prosecutor’s Office to help each other’s work.

It is also a problem that, although Slovenia has delegated a prosecutor to the central body, it has still not designated the two national liaison prosecutors. The tender was declared invalid by the government, as a response to which the Slovenian Minister of Justice resigned, and the Slovenian Attorney General said that the government had only one thing to do: approve the selected prosecutors.

This is not the first time that Prime Minister Janez Jansa has indicated following a different path. He now argues that other countries, as detailed above, do not participate in the work of the EPPO at all. According to many, Jansa, who will head the EU rotating presidency as the Prime Minister of Slovenia, which will hold the EU rotating presidency for the next six months, is testing the European Union while it is voicing serious criticisms of him, for example, for undermining press freedom.

Laura Codruta Kövesi called the Slovenian government’s decision a very bad sign showing a lack of sincere cooperation.

According to her, this puts Slovenia at great risk because it is not possible to defend EU money in Slovenia without Slovenian prosecutors.

“This will influence the activity of EPPO, the efficiency of EPPO,”

she said.

“How we can protect better the European money without having the prosecutors in Slovenia?”

The EPPO already has its first registered case: it comes from Germany while the second one from Italy. The prosecution is expected to handle 3,000 cases a year.

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Source: hvg.hu