While the appointment of the Portuguese prosecutor to the European Public Prosecutor's Office continues to be controversial (see EUROPE 12634/11), the EU Council is also invited to justify its choice in the context of the nomination of the Belgian prosecutor, according to several EU Council documents seen by EUROPE on Tuesday 19 January.
Magistrate Jean-Michel Verelst, not retained for the post of Belgian prosecutor, has filed an action for annulment (case T-647/20) before the Court of Justice of the European Union of the EU Council Decision appointing the European Prosecutors, under Article 263 TFEU. The EU Council has until 26 January to present its defence in this case.
In this case too, the EU Council had decided to depart from the choice of the selection committee - which had placed Mr Verelst at the top of its list - and finally nominated magistrate Yves Van Den Berge.
In one of the documents, the EU Council explains that it took into account the opinion of the College of Public Prosecutors of Belgium and the Federal Prosecutor, which gave a “very favourable” opinion on Mr Van Den Berge, while it gave reserved opinions on the other two candidates.
In Belgium, the selection of the three magistrates to be proposed to the EU Council as candidates to sit in the European Public Prosecutor's Office is, in fact, made by the Minister of Justice, after consultation and joint opinion of the College of Public Prosecutors and the federal prosecutor.
In justifying its decision, the EU Council further explains that it took into account the fact that the opinion of these two judicial bodies was based not only on the CVs and interviews of the candidates, but also on the overall assessment of the candidates' performance over their entire careers.
MEPs have been very critical of the EU Council’s lack of transparency on the reasons why it deviated from the choice of the selection committee for the Belgian, Bulgarian and Portuguese candidates. The subject will be debated on Wednesday 20 January in the European Parliament. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)