What is the European Prosecutor? (Patrick Carolus)

Author: Patrick Carolus – European Prosecutor Candidate, Visiting Professor (HEFF), Lecturer (UCLouvain)

Publication date: 13/11/2019

The immediate challenge for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office is the finalization of its installation at its headquarters in Luxembourg in accordance with the EU Regulation 2017/1939 for its entry into office, normally scheduled for 20 November 2020.

In this perspective, Laura Codruţa Kövesi, European Chief Prosecutor of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and the 22 European Prosecutors up to one per participating country will have a decisive role to play in collaboration with the European Commission also in charge of its installation.

Indeed, the European Prosecutor occupies a central place in the European Prosecutor’s Office between the supranational level for strategic aspects and the decentralized national level for the operational aspects of criminal investigations.

Firstly, the European Public Prosecutor participates in the strategic decisions of the College (of the European Prosecutors) and operational decisions in the Permanent Chambers (of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office) in relation with the criminal investigations at national level.

Secondly, in this extension, the European Prosecutor has three essential and complementary tasks:

1. He has a mission of supervising investigations and criminal prosecutions conducted at national level by the European Delegated Prosecutors;
2. He has a reporting mission in the Permanent Chambers (of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office) on the progress of criminal investigations entrusted to the European Delegated Prosecutors;
3. He has a support mission as an expert with the national authority of his country of origin and the European Delegated Prosecutors for matters relating to the effective and practical implementation of the European Regulation 2017/1939 and the relations with the institutional stakeholders (EUROJUST, EUROPOL, OLAF).

And last but not least, the first mission of each European Public Prosecutor will be to finalize the implementation of the European Regulation 2017/1939 relating to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office at national level by following several steps:

1. Take part in the vote on the adoption of the internal rules of procedure of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office by the College (of the European Prosecutors) to determine how it works and define its priorities;
2. Participate in the adaptation of national legal provisions in criminal law and procedure with the national authorities to integrate the European Public Prosecutor’s Office as a new judicial actor;
3. Develop cooperation with national authorities for the operational functioning of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office at national level;
4. Establish cooperation between the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and other European institutions (EUROJUST, EUROPOL, OLAF) and non-participating countries in the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
5. Participate in the organization of training in the functioning of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to raise awareness and learn the reality of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.