On Thursday 5 October in Strasbourg, MEPs confirmed the launch of further enhanced cooperation with the approval of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) for tackling fraud against the financial interests of the EU. 20 member states participate in this body: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Slovenia.
The EPPO was approved with 456 votes in favour, 115 against and 6 abstentions. The idea of the European Prosecutor’s Office was proposed in 2013 and its scope has been extended during the examination, in an effort to also tackle the issue of cross-border VAT fraud.
During a debate on the subject on Wednesday evening in Strasbourg, several MEPs also supported the extension of its prerogatives, particularly with regard to terrorism, as proposed on 13 September in Strasbourg by Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, in his State of the Union speech. He was supported by Emmanuel Macron a few days later in this regard.
The report indicates that, "the setting up of the European Prosecutor’s Office will bring significant changes in the way the Union defends its financial interests. It will combine the efforts made by the law enforcement services at European and national levels through a unified, homogenous and efficient approach, in order to tackle European Union level fraud”.
“Currently, only national authorities can investigate and prosecute EU budget-related fraud, such as the intentional misuse of EU structural funds or cross-border VAT fraud, but their jurisdiction ends at their national borders”.
The EPPO will be a Union body with a decentralised structure that will aim to integrate national law enforcement authorities. A Chief of the EPPO will be in charge and each participating member state will be represented by a prosecutor. According to the regulation that will be formally adopted on 12 October at the Justice Council in Luxembourg, investigations will be carried out by delegated European prosecutors established in each member state.
The Prosecutor’ Office will have a reemit to carry out investigations into those committing crimes against the financial interests of the Union, as well as pursue legal proceedings against them and take them to court. The raft of competencies and procedures pertaining to the EPPO include the proposal for a directive on tackling fraud against the financial interest of the Union through criminal law (PIF directive).
The text points out that in December 2016, the Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement on the draft PIF directive. The text explains that they agreed to include serious cross-border VAT fraud cases in the directive’s scope of application by setting out a €10 million ceiling.
At the end of the vote, the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani stated, “We must protect the financial interests of the Union by ensuring that investigations are carried out into any irregularities and that those committing offences are pursued and taken to court systematically and in a uniform manner in every member state. This is what our fellow citizens expect: an obligation to be accountable for taxpayers’ money”.
The EPPO is expected to be up and running by 2019. During the debate on Wednesday evening, several MEPs, however, regretted that not all member states were taking part in this project. Sylvia Simone Kaufmann (S&D, Germany) pointed out that countries like Poland and Hungary, are not taking part but have received a lot of structural funds.
Louis Michel (ALDE, Belgium) also said that he was disappointed that some countries were still not part of this body even though, “The fight against European budget fraud is a responsibility shared between the EU and member states”. The former Commissioner said that it was therefore, “Shocking that certain countries are abnegating their moral and political duty to tackle fraud. The granting of European funds has to be linked with an obligation to carry out this duty”. This idea was also previously suggested by Commissioner Vera Jourova, but has not yet been put into practice. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)