Prague, Dec 5 (CTK) – The Czech Republic should reject the proposed post of European Public Prosecutor as redundant, the Senate, the upper house of parliament, has said in its resolution.
The new office is supposed to investigate offences against the EU’s financial interests.
Justice Minister Robert Pelikan (ANO) has failed to persuade the upper house to change its stance. He said this would complicate further negotiations on the post.
The EU would like to establish the new office by the year’s end.
In their resolution, senators preferred the development of the Eurojust agency. They say it enables its members to coordinate cooperation in the prosecution of a much broader range of crimes.
The EU agency helps investigate the cases in which criminal prosecution was launched in more than one EU member country, coordinate legal steps and mediate legal aid.
Pelikan has defended the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office as a compromise.
However, senators have challenged his arguments.
“If the Eurojust members fulfilled the tasks of a state attorney as well, this work would be sped up. Then it would be fully useless to establish some public prosecutor, specially designated to care for European money,” senator Tomas Grulich (Civic Democrats, ODS), from the European committee, objected.
The scope of work of the new European Public Prosecutor will be defined in an EU directive on the legal fight against harming the EU’s financial interests.
In October, the EU countries’ financial ministers agreed that the office would also prosecute extensive cross-border VAT frauds. Czech EU Commissioner Vera Jourova said they annually caused a loss of about 60 billion euros to the EU
