European Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourova announced at the end of a justice ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Tuesday 28 March, that 13 out of the 17 interested member states had signed a letter to trigger the launch of the enhanced cooperation procedure to set up the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. The four other interested countries will have to join the movement later because the Commission’s objective is to see this project concluded in June.
The signatory countries include France, Germany, Luxembourg (this country will also be in charge of obtaining signatures), Portugal, Belgium, Spain, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Croatia and Finland. According to one source, Greece, Austria and Estonia are among the countries that have indicated that they are not yet able to sign this letter but will not be blocking the procedure because the nine-member state threshold needed has already been achieved.
The European Council officially launched the procedure on 9 March, after observing the lack of unanimity (see EUROPE 11743).
It should be pointed out that the aim of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office is to tackle attempts to defraud European funds and combat fraud in the area of cross-border operations and VAT. Malta is one of the countries, along with Poland, Hungary, Sweden and the Netherlands, that is not supporting this project. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)