The Justice and Home Affairs Council of the EU has approved a regulation to establish the new European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), tasked with investigating VAT fraud and other crimes affecting the EU’s financial interests. The new office is expected to become operational by 2020.
The Justice and Home Affairs Council of the EU has approved a regulation to establish the new European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), tasked with investigating VAT fraud and other crimes affecting the EU’s financial interests. The new office is expected to become operational by 2020. The UK is not currently among the 20 participating member states. See http://bit.ly/1UY6Ovb.
The EPPO central office will be based in Luxembourg and will focus initially on investigating missing trader VAT fraud involving €10m and above, as well as fraud affecting EU funds above €10,000. It will be headed by a European public prosecutor, with investigations carried out by European ‘delegated prosecutors’ located in each member state. When acting for the EPPO, these delegated prosecutors will be fully independent of their national bodies.
Richard Asquith, VP of global indirect tax at Avalara, described the new office as ‘a controversial early step towards a supranational prosecutor’. The European Commission first proposed creating the EPPO in 2013. ‘This concentration of powers at the EU level has taken many years to agree on, and as a result, has meant that eight states have declined to join the initiative,’ Asquith said.
The non-participating states are the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, the UK, Poland, Ireland, Malta and Denmark.
If the new office proves successful in tackling the EU’s VAT fraud problem, which amounts to around €50m a year, Asquith speculates that ‘the dissenting states may join later, and the office’s remit could be widened to other criminal activities’.
Welcoming the Council’s agreement, the Commission said: ‘We are pleased that 20 member states are joining forces to that aim and we are convinced more EU countries will follow. At the same time, we remain confident that all EU members will support our common efforts to protect the EU budget against corruption and fraud. Next year, the Commission will furthermore lay out the next steps on a possible future extension of the tasks of the prosecutor to include also cross-border terrorist crimes.’
The EPPO will mainly rely on national rules of investigation and procedure, which will apply if the regulation does not provide for more specific provisions. In particular, the regulation:
· lists the EPPO’s investigative powers with general conditions for their application and also contains provisions defining the homogeneous procedural rights of the suspected person; and
· contains rules on the admissibility evidence, namely, that evidence gathered lawfully in one member state is admissible in the trial courts of all member states, provided the admission does not adversely affect the fairness of the procedure or the rights of defence as enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The Justice and Home Affairs Council of the EU has approved a regulation to establish the new European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), tasked with investigating VAT fraud and other crimes affecting the EU’s financial interests. The new office is expected to become operational by 2020.
The Justice and Home Affairs Council of the EU has approved a regulation to establish the new European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), tasked with investigating VAT fraud and other crimes affecting the EU’s financial interests. The new office is expected to become operational by 2020. The UK is not currently among the 20 participating member states. See http://bit.ly/1UY6Ovb.
The EPPO central office will be based in Luxembourg and will focus initially on investigating missing trader VAT fraud involving €10m and above, as well as fraud affecting EU funds above €10,000. It will be headed by a European public prosecutor, with investigations carried out by European ‘delegated prosecutors’ located in each member state. When acting for the EPPO, these delegated prosecutors will be fully independent of their national bodies.
Richard Asquith, VP of global indirect tax at Avalara, described the new office as ‘a controversial early step towards a supranational prosecutor’. The European Commission first proposed creating the EPPO in 2013. ‘This concentration of powers at the EU level has taken many years to agree on, and as a result, has meant that eight states have declined to join the initiative,’ Asquith said.
The non-participating states are the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, the UK, Poland, Ireland, Malta and Denmark.
If the new office proves successful in tackling the EU’s VAT fraud problem, which amounts to around €50m a year, Asquith speculates that ‘the dissenting states may join later, and the office’s remit could be widened to other criminal activities’.
Welcoming the Council’s agreement, the Commission said: ‘We are pleased that 20 member states are joining forces to that aim and we are convinced more EU countries will follow. At the same time, we remain confident that all EU members will support our common efforts to protect the EU budget against corruption and fraud. Next year, the Commission will furthermore lay out the next steps on a possible future extension of the tasks of the prosecutor to include also cross-border terrorist crimes.’
The EPPO will mainly rely on national rules of investigation and procedure, which will apply if the regulation does not provide for more specific provisions. In particular, the regulation:
· lists the EPPO’s investigative powers with general conditions for their application and also contains provisions defining the homogeneous procedural rights of the suspected person; and
· contains rules on the admissibility evidence, namely, that evidence gathered lawfully in one member state is admissible in the trial courts of all member states, provided the admission does not adversely affect the fairness of the procedure or the rights of defence as enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
