On Wednesday 31 May, the Committee of Permanent Representatives to the EU (Coreper) finalised the last remaining details that will enable justice ministers to adopt their general approach on the European Prosecutor’s Office on 8 June. During this meeting, Estonia also announced its wish to join the strengthened cooperation. This will bring the number of countries that want to be involved in European Prosecutor’s Office up to 18, explained one source.
By next week, two other member states, Austria and Italy, may also follow suite, even though Austria may not be completely ready at domestic level, explained our same source.
For all remaining questions, Coreper looked at the references in the European Prosecutor’s Office text to the directive on the protection financial interests. It decided to opt for a “dynamic” reference to this directive, in other words, one that takes into account all the different evolutions affecting it, except for implications that apply to VAT.
The member states debated the question of VAT in the European Prosecutor’s Office, as well as the question of what levels of fraud would involve intervention from the European Prosecutors Office in fraud involving VAT. The compromise means that the levels for VAT fraud will not change and if this were to, it would be necessary to completely revise the European regulation on the European Prosecutors Office.
Other factors were tackled, such as respecting the rules of the European Prosecutor’s Office on the basis of European personal data protection standards. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)