Brussels, 30/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is expected to adopt, on 13 September, a communication to the IGC in which it maintains and specifies its proposal to appoint a European prosecutor responsible for criminal sanctions against fraud to the detriment of the Community's financial interests. Presented on 26 January by the Commission in its opinion on the Intergovernmental Conference for reform of the Institutions, the idea to set a European prosecutor in place was met with reticence from many Member States.
The Commission should therefore specify in this communication its wish for an article or paragraph to be added to the Treaty, with a view to creating the new function of European prosecutor, exclusively responsible for protecting the "Community's financial interests" (VAT fraud in particular). The prosecutor would be entrusted with completing the work of the Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), by coordinating inquiries and by ensuring that they are taken before the courts of Member States concerned. The new article would simply establish the post of European prosecutor and the Commission would then make more concrete legislative proposals as to its functioning, the qualification of infringements and sanctions to be taken, etc. (This proposal is to be differentiated from work in progress at the Justice and Home Affairs Council on the creation of Eurojust).
In June, the Anti-Fraud Office had criticised in its first annual report the lack of follow-up to the result of its inquiries at criminal level, and called for greater harmonisation in the qualification of offences and the legal action to be taken. The Commissioner responsible for the budget and the fight against fraud, Michaele Schreyer, had confirmed end June in the communication "for a global strategic approach in the fight against fraud" that the Commission was to follow up these requests and make a "concrete proposal" for the creation of the post of European prosecutor, while recognising that this question is the "subject of controversy among Member States". The Committee of the Wise, chaired by Jean-Luc Dehaene, in its report last autumn, had recommended the creation of the post of European prosecutor to combat fraud.