The European Public Prosecutor's Office, the new body responsible for fighting fraud against European funds and VAT, is supposed to be up and running in 2020. With its founding regulation having been adopted on 12 October of last year (see EUROPE 11882), how is it shaping up, three months down the line?
This is the question asked by MEPs during the debate at the European Parliament on Thursday 11 January that brought together the committees on civil liberties (LIBE) and budgetary control (CONT), with the question of anticipated staff numbers central to MEPs' concerns.
“If the Office will not have sufficient human resources until 2023, it will go straight to the wall”, said the chair of the CONT committee, Ingeborg Grässle (EPP, Germany). It is anticipated that 115 people will join the office up to 2023 (45 from Olaf, 16 from Eurojust, 4 from the Commission and 50 fresh posts).
However, this will be done progressively, explained the Director General of the European anti-fraud office (Olaf), Nicholas Ilett. In 2019, one post will be transferred from Olaf to the Public Prosecutor's Office, nine more in 2020 and 2021, 10 in 2022 and 16 in 2023.
Grässle has concerns that the lack of staff could cause delays in getting the Office up and running. “It will be a laughing stock, as it will not be able to function properly”, she said, adding that the risk was even greater as only 20-member states have decided to join this new body through enhanced cooperation and that the other member states would have to be convinced of its success.
“The Commission is doing its best to make sure that the Office can start work in November 2020”, the Commission's deputy Director General for Justice, Francisco Fonseca Morillo, pledged. Internal work to appoint a Commission official as interim administrative director is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks, he said.
In order to follow the progress made closely, the two committees have expressed their intention of holding meetings of this kind every six months and have asked the Commission for written information on a number of issues. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)