The Council has appointed 5 European Prosecutors from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) as part of a partial replacement of the EPPO College (the term of office of 8 European Prosecutors expires on July 28, 2023)*. They will take office on July 29, 2023.
The new European Prosecutors are:
- Nikolaos PASCHALIS
- Andrea VENEGONI
- Anne PANTAZI LAMPROU
- Gedgaudas NORKŪNAS
- Ursula SCHMUDERMAYER
They will oversee investigations and prosecutions and, together with the European Chief Prosecutor, form the EPPO College.
European Prosecutors are appointed for a maximum term of 6 years. However, at the end of this period, the Council may decide to extend their term of office for up to 3 years. In connection with the transitional measures for the first term of office after the establishment of the EPPO, European Prosecutors from one-third of the Member States were appointed by lot for a single term of 3 years to stagger the replacement of the College. This was the case for the public prosecutors of Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.
Each Member State puts forward candidates for the position of European Prosecutor. The candidates must be active members of the public prosecutor’s office or the judiciary of their Member State, their independence must be beyond doubt, and they must have the qualifications to be appointed to the highest prosecutorial or judicial positions in their Member State. They must also have relevant practical experience with national legal systems, financial investigations, and international judicial cooperation in criminal matters. After the nomination phase, a selection panel prepares reasoned opinions, along with a ranking of the candidates proposed by the Member States who meet the requirements. Subsequently, the Council selects and appoints one of the candidates as the European Prosecutor for the respective Member State.
The other 3 European Prosecutors will be appointed in a later procedure.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office is an independent body of the EU, responsible for investigating, prosecuting, and bringing to justice offenses that harm the financial interests of the Union (fraud, corruption, cross-border VAT fraud exceeding €10 million). The EPPO prosecutes these offenses as a public prosecutor before the competent courts of the Member States.
In 2019, the Council and the European Parliament appointed Laura Codruţa Kövesi as the first European Chief Prosecutor.
Currently, 22 Member States participate in the EPPO (Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, and the Czech Republic).
The EPPO was launched at the end of 2020 and is based in Luxembourg.