The European Public Prosecutor’s Office is on track to start operations on 1st June, according to a European Commission ‘non paper’ dated 3 May and copied to EUROPE.
According to the document, the European Commission is indeed considering setting a start date of 1st June for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, as requested by its European Chief Prosecutor, Laura Kövesi, but “subject to a final verification” (see EUROPE 12694/14).
“The preparations at the national level have considerably progressed in the last months”, the document states. Almost all Member States have now adopted legislation to adapt their national judicial systems to the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, with the exception of Austria, Spain and Luxembourg. For these three countries, the procedures should be completed within the next two to three months at the latest.
The appointment of European Delegated Prosecutors has also progressed well. As of 7 May, 76 European Delegated Prosecutors from 16 Member States had been appointed, out of the 140 expected.
The situation in Slovenia is of particular concern to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (see EUROPE 12707/31). While the country finalised its national selection procedure for their two European Delegated Prosecutors in December 2020, it has still not forwarded these applications to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Cyprus, Luxembourg and Greece have also failed to forward the names of their candidates to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In addition, Finland has still not reached an agreement with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office on the number of European Delegated Prosecutors for its country and particularly on the issue of part-time prosecutors.
Regarding cooperation with Member States not participating in the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, only a working agreement with Hungary has been concluded for the time being (see EUROPE 12695/22). According to the document, negotiations are ongoing with all other countries except Ireland. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)