Luxembourg, 16/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - European Union justice ministers, meeting on Monday 15 June, approved the first 16 articles of the proposal for the creation of a European public prosecutor's office to tackle European budget fraud. These articles relate to the office's organisational and operational rules.
The articles on which agreement was reached deal, among other things, with delegation of cases to national prosecutor's offices, the central European prosecutor's office being able to delegate cases involving less than €100,000, though only subject to certain conditions.
Doubts still remain in the number of member states which will take part since the prosecutor's office project continues to spark reservations. Three member states already have opt-outs - Ireland, Denmark and the United Kingdom, this latter country repeatedly making clear that it has no intention of joining the project. “We'll have to see if we continue with 25 member states or with fewer”, wondered a European source ahead of the ministerial meeting. (Solenn Paulic)