The European Public Prosecutor Office

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INTRODUCTION

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is an independent body of the European
Union responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the
financial interests of the EU, including:

- Fraud
- Corruption
- money laundering
- cross-border VAT fraud

The European Public Prosecutorʼs Office stardes operations on 1 June 2021.

An independent body of the EU with legal personality established by Council Regulation

(EU) 2017/1939 of 12 October 2017. This Council Regulation applies to 22 participating EU
countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands,
Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Spain.

The role of the EPPO is to investigate, prosecute and bring to judgment perpetrators of
criminal offences affecting the EU budget and other crimes in respect of the EU's financial
interests. It is empowered to do this by exercising the functions of prosecutor through European
Delegated Prosecutors in the competent courts of the member states.

The EPPO will complement the work of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and
Eurojust, which do not carry out prosecutions of individual criminal cases. The EPPO will
assume its investigative and prosecutorial task on a date to be determined by a European
Commission decision on a proposal of the European Chief Prosecutor, once the EPPO is set up.
The date to be set by the Commission decision will not be earlier than 20 November 2020 (that
is, three years after the date of entry into force of Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1939).