Brussels, 02/08/2007 (Agence Europe) - European Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini is likely very shortly to propose the appointment of a European public prosecutor, who would have powers to initiate and proceed with the investigation of serious cross-border crime. “I am convinced that Europe will have its general prosecutor in the future,” Mr Frattini recently told the EUobserver. After the summer break, the Commission intends to bring forward a two step strategy to strengthen Eurojust, the agency which is charged with enhancing legal cooperation between member states. This idea was part of the draft constitutional treaty, which would also have made possible the creation of a European public prosecutor's department from Eurojust (a unanimous decision would have been required for this to happen). Mr Frattini went on to indicate that the Commission was merely waiting for the Union's new set of rules to be in place, by mid-2009, to go ahead with the measure. “Once the treaty is adopted and enters into force, we will start talking about Eurojust having the power and the responsibility of initiating an investigation, not only of coordinating it,” he added. Eurojust coordinates serious crime, particularly organised and cross-border, investigations and prosecutions. It improves cooperation between the competent authorities of member states, facilitates international mutual legal assistance and the execution of extradition requests and European arrest warrants. Eurojust also helps in member states' criminal investigations, on the basis of investigations carried out by Europol on cyber crime, fraud and corruption, laundering of the proceeds of crime, environmental crime and involvement in a criminal organisation. While taking account of member states' prerogatives, Mr Frattini opined that a single European prosecutor “could be useful” in areas such as financial crime, fraud and counterfeiting at European level. Any such move would require harmonisation of some definitions (a criminal code) in the EU, a step which member states will find difficult to take. The commissioner acknowledged that there would never be a European criminal code, but felt that harmonisation of some definitions, for example what constituted terrorist activity or trafficking of children, was necessary. (bc)