Following the publication of Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/856 in the Official Journal of the European Union on 25 May, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) officially started its investigation and prosecution work on 1 June 2021.
Background
The first steps towards creating the EPPO date back to 2017 when 16 EU Member States, including Belgium, announced their intention to better cooperate in the fight against fraud detrimental to the EU budget.
Later that year, Directive (EU) 2017/1371 of 5 July 2017 on the fight against fraud to the Union’s financial interests by means of criminal law (more commonly known as the ‘PIF Directive’) was published. The PIF Directive aims to increase the level of protection of the EU budget by harmonising the definitions, sanctions and statutes of limitations applicable to criminal offences affecting the Union’s financial interests. The Directive lays the foundation for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, whose mission is to investigate and prosecute offences detrimental to the EU budget such as money laundering, corruption and cross-border VAT fraud.
Subsequently, Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 of 12 October 2017 set out the structure and overall plan for how the office would work and thus the EPPO was officially established.
The EPPO
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office, headed up by Laura Codruţa Kövesi, operates as a single office across all participating EU countries (that is 22 EU Member States with the exceptions of Hungary, Ireland, Poland and Sweden) and combines European and national law enforcement efforts in a unified approach.
The EPPO works completely independently from the European Commission, the other institutions and bodies of the European Union and the Member States. Nevertheless, the EPPO relies on its cooperation with other EU bodies and agencies, such as Eurojust and Europol as well as with non-participating Member States in order to effectively carry out its investigative and prosecutorial powers.
Anyone (whether you’re an EU citizen, a non-EU citizen, a private individual or a legal entity) can report a crime to the EPPO’s headquarters or online, as long as there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a criminal offence affecting the EU’s financial interests has been committed.
The EPPO began operating on 1 June
Vice-President Vĕra Jourová, Commissioner Johannes Hahn and Commissioner Didier Reynders heralded the start of the operations of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, stating that the EPPO ‘will prosecute and bring the suspected perpetrators of crimes to justice in the 22 participating EU Member States. Sweden has expressed its interest and is planning to join the EPPO in 2022. We encourage the four Member States that chose to stay out to join as well. Because crime knows no borders – we need to fight it together.’
After almost four years of preparations, the EPPO finally began operating on 1 June 2021. The European Union now has a public prosecutor supported by a team ready to investigate and prosecute. Therefore businesses would do well to be prepared.
