Five MEPs wrote to the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, on Tuesday 29 June, asking them to take action on the missing Slovenian nominations to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
For Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA, Germany), Sergey Lagodinsky (Greens/EFA, Germany), Stelios Kouloglou (The Left, Greece), Ramona Strugariu (Renew Europe, Romania), Lara Wolters (S&D, Netherlands) and former German MEP Franziska Brantner, the cancellation by Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša of the appointment of the two proposed European Delegated Prosecutors (see EUROPE 12707/31) is “an unacceptable violation of Rule of law in Slovenia”.
Furthermore, the absence of delegated prosecutors for Slovenia represents, according to them, “a serious risk that potential cases of fraud and abuse of EU funds will at this point not sufficiently be investigated”.
They ask the EU to demand the immediate nomination of the two candidates initially proposed, but also to suspend EU funds to Slovenia. In particular, the Commission is invited to make use of the conditionality mechanism on the Rule of law.
The European Commission had already sent a letter to the Slovenian Minister of Justice last week, asking for an explanation on the reasons for abandoning the first procedure (see EUROPE 12748/17).
On Tuesday, Slovenia’s ambassador to the EU, Iztok Jarc, said his country had launched the second selection procedure for delegated prosecutors and that he hoped it would be concluded as quickly as possible.
See the letter: https://bit.ly/3dqLq18 (Original version in French by Marion Fontana with Camille-Cerise Gessant)