FAQ - Filter by General

The EPPO undertakes investigations, carries out acts of prosecution and exercises the functions of prosecutor in the competent courts of the participating EU country.

The creation of the EPPO has been underway for almost 25 years. One of the key dates is October 2017, as this was when the legal basis of the EPPO, the EPPO Regulation, was adopted.
Four years later, on 1 June 2021, the EPPO started its operations.

24 EU countries decided to join the EPPO and participate in the enhanced cooperation. These are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
Each participating EU country also has a page on our website, where you can find more information.

Yes, the EPPO is an independent European Union body. The EPPO’s independence is guaranteed in the EPPO Regulation, the legal framework of the EPPO. The prosecutors working for the EPPO work in the interests of the EU, and do not take instructions from anyone outside of the EPPO, including national authorities.

The central office of the EPPO is located in Luxembourg. By the end of 2024, the EPPO had 44 decentralised offices located throughout the participating EU countries.

By the end of 2024, there were 275 EPPO staff working in Luxembourg and 166 European Delegated Prosecutors working in the EPPO offices in the participating EU Member States.

The EPPO is organised on two levels: a central office in Luxembourg, which includes the European Chief Prosecutor and 24 European Prosecutors, and a decentralised level with around 170 European Delegated Prosecutors in 45 offices in the participating EU countries.

The current European Chief Prosecutor is Laura Kövesi. She represents the EPPO vis-à-vis the institutions of the EU, EU countries and third parties, and also chairs the College of the EPPO.
In October 2019, she was confirmed as the first European Chief Prosecutor for a period of 7 years.

The College of the EPPO is made up of the European Chief Prosecutor and 24 European Prosecutors (one per participating EU country). Together, they decide on strategic matters and adopt internal rules and procedures.

For each Member State, one European Prosecutor has been appointed by the Council of the European Union. The European Prosecutors are members of the College, the EPPO’s steering body. They are also involved in the EPPO’s case work, as they sit in the Permanent Chambers which monitor and direct investigations handled by the European Delegated Prosecutors (-> What is a European Delegated Prosecutor?), and they supervise the investigations handled by the European Delegated Prosecutors from their own Member State. In exceptional cases, the European Prosecutors may decide to step in for a European Delegated Prosecutor from their Member State, and conduct the investigation personally.

The Permanent Chambers are the operational engine of the EPPO, and are a very strong extra layer to guarantee the independence of the EPPO’s investigations. They monitor the actions taken by the European Delegated Prosecutors throughout the investigation and prosecution, and decide on all the important steps – such as whether to prosecute or dismiss a case, or to apply a simplified procedure. Each Permanent Chamber (15 in total) consists of 3 European Prosecutors who are permanent members.
To ensure an independent assessment of the case, none of the members of the Permanent Chambers comes from the country where the report came from.
Our Permanent Chambers are unique; they have not been used anywhere else in the world.

European Delegated Prosecutors are the prosecutors who investigate, prosecute and bring to judgment cases falling within the EPPO's competence on behalf of the EPPO in his/her home Member State. A European Delegated Prosecutor is called a handling European Delegated Prosecutor in respect of those cases where he/she is responsible for the investigations and prosecutions, for instructing the competent investigation authorities in his/her Member State, and eventually for taking the case to a court of the Member State where he/she is located.

A European Delegated Prosecutor can also act as an assisting European Delegated Prosecutor: He/she takes this role where the responsible handling European Delegated Prosecutor from another Member State needs a measure (e.g. a search) to be carried out in the former’s Member State. The assisting European Delegated Prosecutor then assists the investigations and prosecutions of the handling European Delegated Prosecutor in a cross-border manner, by carrying out the measures assigned to him/her by the handling European Delegated Prosecutor.

The work of the European Delegated Prosecutors is supervised by the European Prosecutors (-> What is a European Prosecutor?) at the Central Office.

There are at least 2 European Delegated Prosecutors in each participating EU country. In total, the EPPO currently has around 140 European Delegated Prosecutors across the 42 offices in the participating EU countries.

Denmark, Hungary, and Ireland are not participating in the EPPO, as joining the EPPO is not an obligation. Working arrangements with these 3 non-participating EU countries are being established to define how the EPPO will cooperate with them. The working arrangement with Hungary was signed in April 2021, and the working arrangement with Denmark – in August 2023.