On Wednesday 26 May, the European Commission adopted a decision setting 1 June as the official starting date for the work of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office under the leadership of Romanian Laura Kövesi (see EUROPE 12717/13).
“We are on the home stretch now: we are about to launch the first-ever independent EU office to investigate and prosecute crimes affecting the EU budget”, said Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová.
However, she acknowledged that she was in close contact with the Slovenian authorities because we “desperately” need their proposals for the appointment of European Delegated Prosecutors before the work of the Prosecutor's Office can begin.
Finland has also yet to make its proposals.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office will investigate and prosecute the following frauds and offences affecting the EU’s financial interests: fraud relating to expenditure and revenue of the EU budget, cross-border VAT fraud in excess of 10 million euros, money laundering, active and passive corruption or misappropriation of funds, participation in a criminal organisation.
See the Commission’s decision: https://bit.ly/2RLTBgQ (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)