Brussels, 02/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - As we mentioned, the European Commission has submitted to the Intergovernmental Conference on the EU's Institutional Reforms its "complementary contribution", already announced in its notice of 26 January last on the IGC, on strengthening the EU's financial interests through the creation of a position of independent European Prosecutor.
Michaele Schreyer, Commissioner responsible for the budget and for combating fraud, welcomed the spirit and timing of the proposal, stressing that traditional methods of judicial cooperation were no longer appropriate or adequate, at a time when enlargement "will increase the fragmentation of jurisdiction and the number of agencies involved in managing Community funds". As for Commissioner Michel Barnier, responsible for institutional reform, he noted that the IGC had not yet had a substantive debate on the creation of a European Prosecutor, notably because certain delegations preferred to wait, considering that "the changes brought in the Treaty of Amsterdam have not yet borne their fruit". But, noting that progress towards stepping up the fight against fraud was moving too slowly, he agreed with Ms. Schreyer that "this proposal needs to be submitted right away".
In its proposal aimed at enshrining a new Article in the Treaty, which is limited to laying down the terms for governing the appointment and departure from office of the independent prosecutor and defining his or her task, whereas it suggests that their status and working arrangements be dealt with by secondary legislation, the Commission stresses that it is strictly confined to protecting the financial interests of the Community as defined by Article 208 of the Treaty. The Commission observes that fraud and other irregularities affecting the Community's financial interests accounted for a total estimated by the Commission and Member States at over a billion euro in 1998.
The Commission stresses that the protection of the Community's financial interests has to be ensured in an equivalent manner between Member States, but that shortcomings stem from the following facts: (1) the fragmentation of the European law-enforcement area. The Commission recalls that the Convention of 26 July 1995 on the protection of the Community's financial interests and additional protocols have still not taken effect, not having been ratified by all the parties, and that these provisions alone will not suffice to "eliminate the fragmentation of the European law-enforcement area as prosecutions will still be brought at national level". The Commission provides the example of the ban on beef and veal exports infected by BSE which was circumvented by operators in three Member states when exporting to a non-member country, noting that the fragmentation of judicial authorities between the Member States led to "competing, partial or non-existent proceedings". (2) the cumbersome and inappropriate traditional methods of judicial cooperation between Member States, faced with the development of organised crime. The Commission stresses "the delays, dilatory actions and unpunished offences stemming from the inadequacies in cooperation between Member states in criminal matters, and recalls that, at a public hearing before the EP, …/..
a prosecutor from a Member State stated that he had had to deal with as many as 60 successive actions in the requested State in a single case likely to affect the Community's financial interests. (3) Difficulties in making administrative inquiries culminate in successful prosecutions. Here, the Commission lists the obstacles to the transmission of information between Member States and between them and Oaf (European Ant-Fraud Office), due to differences in rules governing prosecutions in each Member State.
The Commission stresses that its proposal is based on "mature and detailed preparatory study": thus, for nigh-on ten years, a group of experts in criminal law from all Member States has been working on well-known laws like "Corpus Juris", stipulating "the possible architecture of an independent European Public Prosecutor, responsible in matters of the protection of the Community's financial interests for directing investigations and prosecuting cases in the relevant national courts and for coordination with national procedures". The Commission also states that it envisages a highly decentralised organisation, the European Prosecutor being supported by Deputy European Prosecutors in the Member States. It would, therefore be a question of introducing an Article 280 (b) in the Treaty, stipulating that: