On Monday 11 March, the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control voted in favour of measures to make the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) more effective in carrying out its tasks and to enable harmonious cooperation between the Office and the future European Public Prosecutor's Office (see EUROPE 12143/18).
By adopting the report by Ingeborg Grässle (EPP, Germany) on this issue (19 votes in favour, 1 against and 2 abstentions), the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee amended the proposal in order to: - promote a faster closure of investigations; - further promote the admissibility of OLAF reports in national judicial and administrative proceedings; - create a right for persons concerned to access the final report and bring a lawsuit against it (as regards the fundamental rights of persons concerned by OLAF investigations); - guarantee a better follow-up of the Director-General’s recommendations by the Members States and EU institutions and - create a ‘Controller of procedural guarantees’.
A plenary vote in the European Parliament will take place in April to conclude the first reading of the text regarding the revision of the OLAF Regulation. It will be up to the new term of the European Parliament to start negotiations with the Council of the EU next Autumn.
The European Public Prosecutor's Office, whose procedure for appointing the head is controversial, should be operational by the end of 2020 (see EUROPE 12210/2). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)