Lords probe European Anti-Fraud Office on European Public Prosecutor proposal
The House of Lords Justice, Institutions and Consumer Protection EU Sub-Committee will question, via video-link, Giovanni Kessler, the Director General of OLAF, on Monday 7 April.
As part of its on-going investigation into the impact of the proposed new European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) on non-participating Member States of the European Union, the Committee will also question Lothar Kuhl, Head of Unit for Policy Development in OLAF, the European Commission's Anti-Fraud Office in the same session.
Issues the witnesses are likely to be questioned on include:
- the advantages of both the Commission's plan that the EPPO has exclusive competence for financial crimes against the EU and the Greek Presidency's proposal that it is shared between the prosecutor and Member States;
- what the workload of the EPPO might look like and how its “small central structure” would cope with a significant amount of work; and
- the way in which fraud against the EU's finances would be fought by the Commission and both participating and non-participating Member States and how the proposed EPPO fits in with these scenarios.
The evidence session will take place on Monday 7 April at 2pm in Committee Room 1.