Cornerstones for a Draft Regulation on the Establishment of a European Public Prosecutor's Office (“Eppo”) in Accordance with Article 86 Par. 1–3 Tfeu
| DOI | 10.1177/203228441300400113 |
| Date | 01 March 2013 |
| Published date | 01 March 2013 |
| Author | European Criminal Bar Association++++ |
| Subject Matter | Analysis and Opinion |
New Journal of Eu ropean Crimina l Law, Vol.4, Issue 1–2, 2013 185
CORNERSTONES FOR A DRAFT REGULATION
ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A EUROPEAN
PUBLIC PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE “EPPO”
INACCORDANCE WITH
ARTICLE86PAR.13TFEU
E C B A
1. INTRODUCTION AND LEGAL BACKGROUND
e ECBA follows certain EU proposa ls for legislation in the area of cri minal justice
to ensure that the rights of all citizens, including the fundamental rights of persons
under investigation, suspects, accused and convicted persons are considered and
respected. From March to June 2012 the European Commission (EC) carried out a
public consultation on “protecting the EU’s nancial interests and enhancing
prosecutions”. Since June 2012 the results of an EU funded project on the potential
establishment of a Europe an Public Prosecutor’s O ce (EPPO) have been int roduced
to the public (www.eppo-project.eu). e research for this project relied on existing
research in t his eld, in particular t he Corpus Juris Study (2000), the “Struct ures and
Perspectives of European Cr iminal Justice” and t he “EuroNEEDs” (2012/2013) studies
of the Max Planck Institute as well as the “E ective Criminal Defence in Europe”
study of the University of Maastricht, O pen Society Institute and JUSTICE (2010).
In November 2012 the ECBA was consulted and invited by the EC to comment on
the current politica l plan to present a dra regulation on EPPO mid-2013. At the ERA
conference in Trier on 17–18January 2013 it has been again clearly expressed by
several representatives of the EC including the European Anti-Fraud O ce (OLAF)
that the forthcoming proposa l on EPPO is part of a series of initiatives which all s eek
to strengthen the legal framework to combat fraud (i.e. strict focus on “PIF” crimes
deducted of “protection of nancia l interest” of the EU). e r st new measure in this
regard is the proposal for a Directive on protect ion of the nancial interests of the EU
by criminal law of 11July 2012 which is based on Ar ticle 325 par. 4 TFEU.
e main proposals of the EC concerning EPPO have become more concrete but
the most crucial poi nts of details are still open and u nsolved, e.g. institutional design
and organisation, “integrated and yet decentralised system”, coordination and
relationship between national and European level, coordination and cooperation of
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