Office for the Protection of Competition Cooperates with European Public Prosecutor's Office
Today in Luxembourg, Mr Petr Mlsna, the Chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition, signed an agreement with the European chief prosecutor, Ms Laura Codruţa Kövesi, on cooperation between the European Public Prosecutor's Office (hereinafter referred to as “the EPPO“) and the Office for the Protection of Competition (hereinafter referred to as “the Office“).
The mutual cooperation was established with the aim to improve the quality of the protection of the financial interests of the European Union from the perspective of the EPPO, and to improve the level of promotion and protection of competition from the Office’s perspective. Both authorities will, within the limits set by legislation, exchange strategic information resulting from their activities which will be relevant for the exercise of powers of the other party to the agreement. In addition, both the Office and the EPPO will cooperate on mutual education and training in areas affecting both authorities.
"When investigating competition and public procurement cases, the Office can, for example, obtain information about possible economic offences related to the use of EU funds. This agreement sets a clear framework for the transmission of these complaints to the European Public Prosecutor in the Czech Republic," the Chairman of the Office explained one of the possible specific methods of the agreement implementation.
Established in 2021, the EPPO's main role is to investigate, prosecute and bring to courts crimes affecting the EU's financial interests, including economic and financial offences such as misuse of funds, misappropriation of EU funds or property, money laundering, organised crime, tax fraud and corruption. The EPPO acts as a prosecutor before the competent court of the EU Member state concerned, prevails over national jurisdiction and applies national law in cases not covered by the EU law. Prosecutors working for the EPPO do not take instructions from anyone outside the EPPO, including national authorities. The EPPO's partners are Europol, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Eurojust and national authorities (prosecutors, the police, customs and tax authorities, Supreme Audit Office, the Office and others).
The EPPO's central office is located in Luxembourg, where the EPPO College of prosecutors is headed by the European Chief Prosecutor and where 22 European prosecutors are based, one from each participating EU country. The European Prosecutor nominated for the Czech Republic is Petr Klement, who is currently acting as Deputy Chief Prosecutor. The other 42 decentralised EPPO offices, staffed by European Designated Prosecutors (EDPs), are located in the 23 participating EU member states; there are six offices in the Czech Republic (Prague, Brno, České Budějovice, Liberec, Ostrava and Zlín). Since the establishment of the EPPO on 1 June 2021, more than 4,000 criminal charges have been registered in the first year, more than 900 investigations have been initiated and almost €260 million have been seized.
Press Unit of the Office for the Protection of Competition
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