On Wednesday 28 July, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had signed a working agreement with the European Commission at the end of June on how they would cooperate to protect the EU’s financial interests.
The agreement stipulates, inter alia, that the Commission shall report to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, without undue delay, any criminal conduct in respect of which the European Public Prosecutor's Office may exercise its jurisdiction. In order to speed up the process, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office can be directed to single contact points in the relevant Directorates-General and Commission services.
The agreement also provides a list of databases to which the European Public Prosecutor’s Office will have direct access, such as the Financial Transparency System (FTS) or, for pending cases, the Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES). European Delegated Prosecutors will also have direct access to the Schengen Information System (SIS), if they already have direct access as national prosecutors, or indirect access, via the competent national authorities, if national law so provides.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office will only have indirect access to other systems, such as the Customs Information System (CIS). The Commission will then have to extract the requested information from the databases and transmit it to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office as soon as possible, and in any case within 15 working days from the receipt of the request, taking into account the degree of urgency.
The text also specifies that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and the European Commission will cooperate closely and in a timely manner on the application of the mechanism establishing conditionality between the payment of EU funds and the respect of the Rule of law in a Member State.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office had already signed a cooperation agreement with the European Anti-Fraud Office (see EUROPE 12755/29), with Eurojust (see EUROPE 12658/24), and with Europol (see EUROPE 12641/35).
See the text: https://bit.ly/3BUAeEH (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)