Outgoing EPPO chief warns office faces slow death by budget squeeze

Laura Codruța Kövesi, whose seven-year term as European Chief Prosecutor concludes Friday, warned that the European Public Prosecutor's Office risks being dismantled not by a frontal attack but by a gradual withdrawal of resources and political will.

"In Brussels, no one can hear you scream," she said, citing the Danish television series Borgen — a nod also to the Ridley Scott film Alien. She added that she was concerned the EPPO would be "killed softly" precisely because of its effectiveness.

Kövesi said the most serious threat to the institution's future comes at two levels: budget constraints and the forthcoming revision of the EPPO regulation, which she described as the moment that would reveal who genuinely supports an independent judiciary.

She voiced alarm at the public positioning of candidates to succeed her. One candidate, she said, had presented his programme as a plan to "normalize" the EPPO — a formulation she called threatening, given her background growing up during communism. A second candidate, she said, spoke of maintaining equal distance between the prosecution office and all political parties, which she argued was incompatible with prosecutorial independence.

Kövesi also cited Greece as the site of the most blatant attempt to undermine the EPPO during her tenure, describing difficulties over the renewal of European delegated prosecutors there as part of a pattern of pressure on the office.

She said the EPPO had proved that the law applies equally to everyone, but acknowledged the office had not succeeded in all of its objectives. The central challenge for her successor, she argued, will be preserving the institution's credibility under sustained political and fiscal pressure.

The EPPO, headquartered in Luxembourg, investigates fraud against the EU budget. It is a voluntary body — not all EU member states participate.