Negotiations between the Council of the EU and the European Parliament on the appointment of the Head of the European Public Prosecutor's Office resumed on Wednesday 27 March. No significant breakthroughs have been minuted, according to two sources. The next meeting has been scheduled for April 4.
The meeting between the two negotiating teams, which lasted a good hour and was held by videoconference due to the Parliamentary plenary session in Strasbourg, again focused on procedural issues (see EUROPE 12218/16).
The Parliament continued to question the legitimacy of the voting procedure in the Council of the EU, which was based on a point system and resulted in a ranking of candidates, which, what’s more, differs from the ranking established by the Selection Committee (see EUROPE 1209/20).
At the Parliament's request, the Council of the EU agreed to send it an internal procedural note setting out how the vote was conducted, so that it could finally “close the debate”, according to a European source.
But the intransigence of the three Parliamentary negotiators - Claude Moraes (S&D, UK), Judith Sargentini (Greens/EFA, Netherlands) and Ingeborg Grässle (EPP, Germany) - on this point is likely to irritate the trio of Croatian, Finnish and Portuguese ambassadors negotiating for the Council of the EU who would like to get to the heart of the matter and address the competences of the candidates, respectively that of Parliament, Romanian Laura Codruţa Kovësi (see EUROPE 12203/7), and of the Council of the EU, the French Jean-François Bohnert (see EUROPE 12198/1).
During the meeting, the ambassadors did indeed introduce the skills they consider important for this position, including professional experience, the ability to work in a multicultural environment, and negotiation and management skills. “The head of the European Public Prosecutor's Office will be more of a manager than a prosecutor”, stressed the same source.
With regard to independence, they were, for example, keen to point out that because of his age, this position will be Mr Bohnert's last before he retires, which they consider to be a guarantee to this end.
However, the Parliament would not enter into this process and limited itself to a more general presentation of its vision of the European Public Prosecutor's Office. “They did not enter into the details of a comparison of candidates' CVs, which, at some point, will have to be done”, said this source.
The Council of the EU is still hoping for an agreement before the end of the mandate of this European Parliament. For this to happen, the meeting on 4 April will have to take a decision or, at the very least, make decisive progress, according to our sources. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)