The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is the new independent public prosecution office of the European Union. It is responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the EU. These include several types of fraud, VAT fraud with damages above 10 million euro, money laundering, corruption, etc.

The EPPO undertakes investigations, carries out acts of prosecution and exercises the functions of prosecutor in the competent courts of the participating Member States, until the case has been finally disposed of. Up until now, only national authorities could investigate and prosecute these crimes, but their powers stopped at the borders of their country. Organisations like Eurojust, OLAF and Europol do not have the necessary powers to carry out such criminal investigations and prosecutions.

It is very difficult to assess the initial workload of their operational team, but a survey of all participating EU Member States shows that the EPPO will start with at least 3,000 cases. This number is likely to increase once the operational phase has started.

The mandate of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office is defined in a Council Regulation that entered into force on 31 October 2017.