Brussels, 03/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 3 March, the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU officially launched a debate over whether to set up a European prosecution office to combat financial fraud within the EU. A European public prosecutor would boost protection of the EU's financial interests, explained Spanish European Affairs Minister Diego López Garrido at a press conference in Brussels. In 2007, fraud of a total of €1.425 billion was committed to the detriment of the EU's financial interests and this amount is rising all the time.
Initially, judges at the European public prosecution office would investigate alleged fraud and speculation against the euro, and at a later stage they would also investigate criminal proceedings involving cross-border crimes like people trafficking, drug trafficking and terrorism, suggested López Garrido. Spain's public prosecutor, Cándido Conde Pumpido, explained that the European prosecutor would make investigations into financial crime more effective and coherent, coordinating the work of the European judicial cooperation agency Eurojust and the European anti-fraud office OLAF, which do not have sufficient capabilities to appear before national courts. The process of setting up an EU prosecution office is at the start and it will take a long time to reach the end, added Conde Pumpido. EU justice ministers will discuss whether to set up an EU prosecutor when they meet in Luxembourg on 22 and 23 April 2010. They will be asked to set out how the structure, scope, powers and scrutiny mechanisms might look for an EU prosecutor, along with a potential timeline. As set out under Article 86 of the Lisbon Treaty, an EU prosecution office would appear before courts in the member states and thereby avoid setting up another competent authority in parallel, explained Conde Pumpido. A decision to set up an EU prosecution office would have to be taken by the Council of Ministers and endorsed by the European Parliament. If unanimity is not reached, then strengthened cooperation would be possible among countries in the eurozone. The question of where an EU public prosecution office would be located has not yet been discussed, but there are suggestions that it could be set up in The Hague in the Netherlands where Eurojust is located because the prosecutor would be expected to work in close liaison with Eurojust. (B.C./transl.fl)