[ad_1]
The action of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), an institution created to combat the misappropriation of European funds, is threatened by delays at a time when Brussels intends to allocate tens of billions of euros to countries affected by the pandemic, with risk of fraud, the agency reports this Friday. France Presse, whom Laura Codruţa Kovesi gave an interview.
Appointed in 2019 to head this new Luxembourg-based judicial authority, Kovesi was sworn in at the end of September together with his college of 22 prosecutors from the EU member states involved in this enhanced cooperation, writes agerpres.ro.
Also read: Raed Arafat, last minute message via RO-ALERT! ‘Observe sanitary measures so as not to endanger your life’
However, the start of the activity, initially scheduled for November, is postponed with the appointment of the 140 delegated prosecutors. They will be in charge of carrying out the national investigations that will be supervised in Luxembourg by the 22 prosecutors.
“While they are not here, we cannot investigate. We hope that they will be proposed as soon as possible” by the member states, “Kovesi said in the interview, specifying that these magistrates” will be paid by the prosecution (EPPO n.red) and will be independent from their governments. “
Also read: Tomorrow there will be a protest in the Capital: ‘Bankruptcy is knocking at the door! Fear will make you hungry!
The appointments stumbled mainly due to practical issues related to the status of the deputy prosecutors.
The same sense of urgency is expressed by the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, who this week wrote to the Member States to urge them to act. He also called on the 10 or so Member States that have not yet adapted their national procedure for joining the EPPO to speed up the process.
Also read: Information of the moment! A new treatment used against Covid-19, in Romanian hospitals! It works wonders for patients with severe forms.
“My wish is to start this year and in any case to be prepared to start as soon as the European budget for 2021-2027 and the relaunch plan can be mobilized,” Commissioner Reynders said.
“We will spend more money, faster and with more flexibility, so we will need a high-performance tool for investigation and prosecution at the European level, because the risks of fraud, financial delinquency related to the budget are much more important ” , he argues.
Also read: Raed Arafat, last minute message via RO-ALERT! ‘Observe sanitary measures so as not to endanger your life’
Another difficulty is that, in order for it to work properly, it is necessary for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to have a more coherent budget, considers Kovesi, adding that “the European Commission’s proposal for 2021 is 37.7 million euros, but we need 55 million euros ”.
” We need staff in Luxembourg. We lack analysts, financial researchers, legal advisers. We still have 80 places to go ”, explains the head of EPPO, whose goal is to have a team of more than 200 people in Luxembourg. “The cost to the EPPO is a small change compared to the benefits of the investigations,” Kovesi said.
Also read: Tomorrow there will be a protest in the Capital: ‘Bankruptcy is knocking at the door! Fear will make you hungry!
However, Commissioner Didier Reynders notes that the budget of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office for 2021 has already “almost tripled”. To increase it even more ”, we will try to see with Parliament and the Council how far we can go. But at some point we will have to start (EPPO activity n.red), this is the only way to demonstrate the need, ” stresses the European Commissioner, who met on Thursday with the EPPO prosecutors’ college.
Installed in a temporary location for the time being, the new prosecutor’s office will move in December to offices currently under renovation, very close to the Court of Justice of the EU.
Also read: Information of the moment! A new treatment used against Covid-19, in Romanian hospitals! It works wonders for patients with severe forms.
“My job is to make sure that all prosecutors are independent and will work impartially, that they will not follow instructions from their governments,” insisted the attorney general in an interview with AFP.
Unlike the current bodies to combat cross-border fraud and crime, Eurojust and Olaf, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) will be able to conduct criminal investigations on the basis of complaints, initiate criminal proceedings and seize assets, notes France Presse.
Also read: Raed Arafat, last minute message via RO-ALERT! ‘Observe sanitary measures so as not to endanger your life’
The competence of this institution includes fraud with European funds exceeding the amount of 10,000 euros, VAT fraud over 10 million euros, acts of corruption and money laundering. There are crimes that represent between 30 and 60 billion euros a year, estimates Kovesi, who hopes to “recover a large part” of these damages.
The working language of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office will be English, to the great regret of the defenders of La Francophonie, this being a choice by the college of prosecutors motivated “for reasons of efficiency”. But “we will use French in our relationship with the EU Court of Justice,” the EPPO chief said in an interview with the French news agency.
Also read: Tomorrow there will be a protest in the Capital: ‘Bankruptcy is knocking at the door! Fear will make you hungry! .
[ad_2]
