One year after its creation, this new investigation structure has launched numerous investigations and allowed the provisional detention of a former Croatian minister for diversion of European funds.
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The history of European construction will remember that it is the first sentence of the new European parquet. On November 22, 2021, an former mayor of a small municipality of Eastern Slovakia was sentenced to three years in prison and five years of banning public office for attempted misappropriation of funds Europeans. The amounts at stake were limited – 93,000 euros, not even disbursed because the false documents were detected on time – and the case of great simplicity: the former mayor pleaded guilty.
But with this conviction, whose details as the identity of the convict can not yet be revealed, under Slovak law, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has been proof that it was finally on foot. “It was a very simple case, but I think we will have more complex cases that will be sent to the Tribunal from 2022”, promises Juraj Novocky, the Slovak Prosecutor in this institution which aims to hunt cross-border fraud. VAT and European funds in the twenty-two countries of the EU that are part of it. For example, it is currently investigating suspicions of corruption for a 50 million euro cybersecurity project funded by the EU. An investigation that directly concerns the previous Slovak government.
Surgé for the first time in 1997, the idea of a centralized prosecutor to combat fraud at European funds has taken time to sprout. But, after years of discussion fed by the multiplication of corruption scandals buried by national justices sometimes under influence, the European Attorney has finally started its activity on the 1 June 2021. Or rather the prosecutor. It is indeed a woman, laura coduta kövesi, 48 years old, courageous magistrate anti-corruption Romanian, who took the lead of this new institution based in Luxembourg.
Intrepid even with the powerful
Surrounded by a prosecutor from each member country, who are each assisted by at least two delegated prosecutors based in their National Capital, M Me Kövesi launched his beating drum actions. A true national star of the anti-corruption fight in his country of origin, this former basketball player applies to the European level the methods that made it known in Romania. First, align the impressive statistics. According to her, in early December, the European parquet floor had already examined 2,500 reports and open 500 criminal investigations, for an amount of damage to the estimated European budget at 5 billion euros.
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