European chief prosecutor Laura Kövesti said that the EPPO is “the first line of defence of the rule of law in the EU” Library photo: Matic Zorman / Maison Moderne

European chief prosecutor Laura Kövesti said that the EPPO is “the first line of defence of the rule of law in the EU” Library photo: Matic Zorman / Maison Moderne

The European Public Prosecutors Office received eight complaints against Luxembourg in its first seven months of being operational and has opened one investigation into EU budget fraud.

The EPPO formally launched on 1 June last year with the mission to investigate and prosecute crime against the financial interests of the EU and its budget. The office published its first annual report on Thursday.

“European cannot mean weak,” said European chief prosecutor Laura Kövesi in a statement. “The EPPO is the first line of defence of the rule of law in the EU. The first seven months of our operations made at least one thing clear: if we are hindered in the exercise of our competence, the protection of the EU budget is at stake.” 

The public prosecutor opened 576 investigations between June and the end of last year, with €5.4bn in estimated damages in the active investigations. In Luxembourg, the EPPO opened one investigation for estimated damages of €546,480. 

It received a total of eight complaints against the country but in three cases they were closed without action. In addition to the ongoing investigation, four complaints are still pending a decision.

The prosecutor processed 2,932 crime reports from across the EU. It investigates fraud involving EU funds of over €10,000 and cross-border VAT fraud with damages above €10m. The prosecutor seized €147.3m last year, three times its own 2021 budget.

So-called recovery actions took place in 12 member states, including Luxembourg as well as Italy, Belgium, Germany, Romania, Czechia, Croatia, Finland, Latvia, Spain, Lithuania and Portugal.

The EPPO is headquartered in the grand duchy, where 122 staff work on tackling EU budget fraud. They are supported by 95 delegated prosecutors in the 22 participating member states. Poland, together with Hungary, Denmark and Ireland, chose not to participate in the body. Sweden said it might join this year. 

In February, the public that Poland has been “consistently rejecting the EPPO’s requests for judicial cooperation”. Non-members are urged to cooperate with the EPPO on cross-border investigations based on existing judicial cooperation mechanisms. The protection of the EU budget is an obligation for all member states.

Luxembourg’s delegated prosecutors assisted in six incoming requests for cross-border support for investigations launched in other member states.