European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi Visits Greece to Strengthen Anti-Corruption Efforts

Laura Kövesi Advocates for Strengthened European Prosecutor Operations successful Greece. Credit: Orestis Panagiotou / AMNA

Laura Kοvesi, caput of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), is successful Athens this week for high-level meetings with Greek authorities and judicial leaders. Her extremity is to fortify the European prosecutorial beingness successful Greece portion addressing some operational and ineligible obstacles that person slowed investigations into corruption and fiscal crime.

Kovesi’s sojourn comes against the backdrop of aggregate high-profile scandals successful Greece, including EU subsidy fraud done OPEKEPE (Greek Payment Authority of Common Agricultural Policy), alleged customs corruption, and the tragic Tempi railway disaster, each of which person drawn European-level scrutiny. Her bureau has besides been instrumental successful uncovering irregularities crossed the EU, from cross-border VAT fraud to large-scale misuse of cultivation and determination improvement funds.

Strengthening the Greek EPPO office

During her gathering with Greek Minister of Justice, Giorgos Floridis, Kοvesi emphasized the request to bolster the national EPPO office. The Justice Ministry confirmed that respective of her requested measures, including accrued staffing and resources, person already been implemented, with remaining initiatives planned for the adjacent future.

A cardinal contented discussed was Article 86 of the Greek Constitution, which presently shields governmental figures from definite transgression investigations. Floridis reportedly assured Kovesi that upcoming law amendments volition revise the article, perchance enabling the EPPO to prosecute investigations without specified ineligible obstacles.

Kovesi has besides engaged with the Independent Authority for Public Revenue and volition conscionable Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrysochoidis, and different cardinal officials to amended inter-institutional coordination successful investigating EU fiscal crimes.

Meeting Greek judicial leadership

The European Chief Prosecutor is scheduled to conscionable with the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Greece to sermon the renewal of presumption for Greek EPPO prosecutors, including Popi Papandreou, whose tenure is acceptable to expire successful the coming years. Greek instrumentality vests the Supreme Judicial Council with exclusive authorization implicit judicial appointments and promotions, a model that requires cautious coordination with EPPO’s mandate.

Greece’s European Prosecutor, Nikos Paschalis, expressed restitution with existent collaboration betwixt Greek authorities and the EPPO, noting a beardown instauration for ongoing investigations. Kovesi praised the productive meetings, peculiarly with Finance Minister Pierrakakis, and is expected to clasp a property league connected Thursday detailing findings from a Europe-wide customs corruption probe portion fielding questions connected Greek-specific cases, including OPEKEPE and Tempi.

EPPO’s past and interaction successful Greece

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office was established successful 2017 to support the EU’s fiscal interests by investigating crimes specified arsenic VAT fraud, misuse of subsidies, and cross-border fiscal offenses. Greece joined the EPPO framework, appointing nationalist prosecutors to enactment nether Kövesi’s supervision portion coordinating with home judicial structures.

In its aboriginal years, the Greek EPPO bureau faced challenges integrating with nationalist law, including overlapping jurisdictions and procedural constraints. However, implicit the past 5 years, practice has strengthened, enabling Greek prosecutors to enactment successful high-profile EU investigations portion maintaining alignment with home law.

Kovesi’s bureau has already exposed respective systemic issues successful Greece: misuse of cultivation subsidies done OPEKEPE, irregularities successful customs operations, and fraud affecting EU-funded improvement projects. These investigations person sent shockwaves done some nationalist and European institutions, signaling that nary level of bureaucracy oregon governmental power is immune from scrutiny.

Today, the Greek EPPO bureau is simply a cardinal span betwixt nationalist and European justness systems, investigating corruption and fiscal transgression portion promoting transparency, accountability, and integrity successful the nationalist sector. Kovesi’s ongoing propulsion for strengthened authorization and resources underscores a broader European effort to guarantee that fiscal misconduct is met with swift and coordinated ineligible action.