As announced in early June by the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders (see EUROPE 12499/13), the European Commission proposed, on Friday 26 June, an amendment to the EU Council implementing decision 2018/1696 on the operating rules of the selection panel of European Prosecutors.
The formation of the College of European Public Prosecutors has been delayed because of Malta's difficulties in appointing three candidates meeting the conditions of experience and independence set out in Article 16 of the European Public Prosecutor's Office Regulation.
In order to unblock the situation, the Commission therefore proposes, exceptionally, to derogate from the operating rules, allowing the selection committee to present a reasoned opinion to the EU Council on only two eligible candidates “where it is sufficiently established that it is objectively impossible for a Member State to find a third eligible candidate within a reasonable time, in spite of having deployed all necessary efforts to do so, given the exceptional circumstances encountered by that Member State”.
This should thus enable the Council of the EU to appoint the Maltese European public prosecutor on the basis of a list of only two eligible candidates and thus avoid delaying the entry into office of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, scheduled for November 2020.
See proposal: https://bit.ly/2AhxXbE (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)