Gwladys Laffitte 10:00 a.m., August 08, 2022
The new European Public Prosecutor's Office, which took office on June 1, 2021, and is located in Luxembourg, is celebrating its first candle.
His goal ?
Track grant fraud across the EU.
Concretely, it brings to justice any person who carries out fraudulent operations to the detriment of European taxpayers.
And this new body has a lot of work to do...
The European Public Prosecutor's Office, a new weapon against tax fraud linked to the finances of the European Union, has opened 930 investigations since its launch, a year ago, on 5.4 billion euros of possible fraud.
This is taxpayers' money.
This can be false VAT declarations or European subsidies allocated to agriculture or to finance artificial intelligence which are misappropriated.
4,600 facts have been reported to the prosecution in one year.
“There is clearly a porosity”
"Behind these frauds, for example in aid for structural policies, there are powerful criminal organizations. This is a sector of activity that is used for laundering purposes. It would seem that it is less risky than doing, for example, traditional drug trafficking. And there is clearly a porosity", explains at the microphone of Europe 1 Cécile Soriano, European Deputy Prosecutor for France.
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Nations judge their nationals
And, according to the magistrate, the investigations are faster since the prosecutors of each country work together for the same institution.
On the other hand, it is the nations that judge their nationals.
Four convictions have already been handed down to prison terms, notably in Slovakia and Croatia.