“In order to ensure the effectiveness of criminal investigations and prosecutions for violations of EU sanctions against Russia, would you agree to entrust them to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO)?” This oral question, addressed to the Commission and the Council of the European Union, was voted on Wednesday 26 April (42 votes in favour, 5 against, 7 abstentions) by the MEPs of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).
The latter argue for the extension of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office’s mandate to all types of violations of EU restrictive measures, believing that this could contribute to “significantly improving” criminal prosecution and the effective application of criminal sanctions. MEPs also highlight the effectiveness of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office since it took up its duties on 1 June 2021 (see EUROPE 12731/2) in tackling offences against the EU’s financial interests - including breaches of EU sanctions - to which its mandate is limited.
The extension of its competences would make it the authority leading the investigation of such violations and prosecuting them in the courts of the 22 Member States that recognise it. According to MEPs, these new powers would address a lack of consistency in the application of the restrictive measures put in place following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
And for good reason; according to the explanatory text drafted by LIBE Committee Chairman Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar (S&D, Spanish), “very few violators of Union restrictive measures are actually held accountable”. This is due to the “insufficient priority in many Members States for the investigation and prosecution”.
While the extension of the competences of the Prosecutor’s Office would tend to increase the effectiveness of the enforcement of EU sanctions violations, it would also promote a certain unity in European enforcement. Furthermore, MEPs note that several Member States are currently advocating this extension, but that this requires a unanimous decision by the EU Council. They therefore ask the latter, as well as the Commission, whether they support this initiative and what measures they are willing to put in place in this respect.
To read the oral question to the EU Council: https://aeur.eu/f/6kj ; and to the Commission: https://aeur.eu/f/6kl (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)