On 20 April, European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi will present the results of the first seven months of the EPPO’s operations to the Budget Control and Civil Liberties committees.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is the new independent public prosecution office of the European Union. It is responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the EU.

These include several types of fraud, VAT fraud with damages above 10 million euro, money laundering, corruption, etc. The EPPO undertakes investigations, carries out acts of prosecution and exercises the function of prosecutor in the competent courts of the participating Member States, until the case has been settled.

Before only national authorities could investigated and prosecuted these crimes, but their powers stopped at the borders of their country. Organisations like Eurojust, OLAF and Europol do not have the necessary powers to carry out such criminal investigations and prosecutions.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office is composed of two levels: the central level and the decentralised (national) level. The central level, with its headquarters in Luxembourg, consists of: the European Chief Prosecutor; 22 European Prosecutors (one per participating EU country), two of whom function as Deputies for the European Chief Prosecutor; and the Administrative Director. The decentralised level consists of the European Delegated Prosecutors (EDPs) in the 22 participating EU Member States.

The central level supervises the investigations and prosecutions carried out by the EDPs at the national level, which operate with complete independence from their national authorities. The EPPO officially started its operational activities on 1 June 2021