Commission calls for EU public prosecutor

The EU need ‘new tools’ to combat budget fraud.

Fighting budget fraud needs a European Union public prosecutor and a stronger role for Eurojust, according to the European Commission.

In a communication approved on Thursday (26 May) it urges member states and the European Parliament to agree on “new tools” to combat fraud under the Lisbon treaty.

The treaty strengthens EU powers to protect its own financial interests through closer co-operation in criminal law, and suggests the creation of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) “from Eurojust”. The Commission now endorses this approach, without making specific proposals. Instead it speaks of possible proposals next year for a “modernised” Eurojust, with powers “to trigger” investigations into criminal activities affecting the EU budget, and closer cooperation by OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud office, with Eurojust and national judicial authorities.

UK concerns

The creation of an EPPO “could contribute” to creating a “common level playing-field” to apply standardised rules across the EU on fraud and other offences against the financial interests of the EU, the Commission adds, indicating that it could make proposals in 2013. But member state support for such a move cannot be guaranteed: already the UK has voiced concerns that an EPPO could over-rule national investigators.

The Commission says that in 2009 member states reported €279 million worth of suspected fraud cases involving EU funds, and that member states need to align criminal law and close loopholes exploited for cross-border fraud and corruption. Only the Netherlands, Greece, and Cyprus have “fully transposed” a 1995 EU convention on sanctions for EU fraud and corruption, according to the latest Commission review.