The European general prosecutor, Laura Kövesi, has criticized before the Committee on Budgetary Control and Freedoms of the European Parliament the lack of cooperation of Spain to investigate possible fraud with European funds.

"All Recovery and Resilience Facility funds are European money and we have powers to investigate. I have written a letter to all the justice ministers of the member countries to clarify this and most have responded. Spain does not want to respond to our request, I hope it does, because it is very important for us to exercise our powers, "he said in parliament in a session broadcast from Brussels.

He insists this after publishing EL MUNDO on the 12th the letter that Kövesi sent to the Minister of Justice, Pilar Llop, last October asking for collaboration without response to date. Sources from the Ministry of Justice explained to this newspaper that he had not responded because he considered that the European general prosecutor did not request anything specific. However, the prosecutor does make a specific request in her letter, to which this newspaper has had access. It argues that "Member states should ensure that the Office of the Prosecutor can exercise its powers in relation to Recovery and Resilience Facility funds (...) In particular, they must provide efficient and effective control systems," adding that recipient states "should, inter alia, collect data on beneficiaries of funds, keep records and guarantee the EPPO the necessary rights and access to such data." He asked Llop, therefore, to let him know how Spain fits with this obligation.

Kövesi appeared this Thursday to present the latest report of the Prosecutor's Office and took the opportunity to launch this message to Spain. Among the attendees were the president of the Freedoms Commission and former Socialist Minister of Justice, Juan Fernando López Aguilar.

According to the European prosecutor, there are already ongoing cases under investigation related to European funds in several states of which she declined to give details. "We have launched some investigations. We currently have 15 ongoing cases and I hope that when we have clarity on all the legislative issues, if there is something wrong we will inform the European Commission."

He has also claimed that the European Public Prosecutor's Office "is independent". "No one interferes with our work."

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