14 October 2017
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EU
Council of the European Union
European Public Prosecutor's Office
14.10.17
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"The draft Regulation aims to set up a European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) which will be responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment the perpetrators of, and accomplices to, criminal offences affecting the financial interests of the Union.(...)
Following the lack of unanimity registered in the Council of 7 February 2017 on the draft Regulation, the referral of that draft Regulation to the European Council by a group of 17 Member States on 14 February 2017 and the discussion leading to a disagreement in the European Council of 9 March 2017, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission were notified on 3 April 2017 of the wish of 16 Member States (Belgium,Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain) to establish enhanced cooperation on the establishment of the EPPO. (...)
Later on, four additional Member States (Austria, Estonia, Italy and Latvia) have informed the three institutions that they wish to participate in the enhanced cooperation."[emphasis added]
The EPPO will be in charge of tackling fraud against European funds and VAT in its cross-border dimensions and is expected to be operational by 2020. It is also expected that the Commission will seek to extend its competencies to other serious offences such as terrorist crimes later.
FINAL TEXT: COUNCIL REGULATION implementing enhanced cooperation on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor's Office ("the EPPO") (Doc no: 9941-17, 210 pages, pdf)
See also:European Public Prosecutors Office (EPPO) (Statewatch News, 5 June 2017) and the European Parliament's postion (29 September 2017, pdf).
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