News

(Luxembourg, 12 January 2024) – On 10 January 2024, following an investigation led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zlín (Czechia), the branch of the Regional Court of Ostrava in Olomouc convicted one business owner and one company of EU funding fraud.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has carried out 31 searches in several locations in Lithuania and detained nine suspects, in connection with an investigation into the development of an environmentally friendly cling film, co-funded by the EU.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Ljubljana (Slovenia) has filed an indictment at the District Court in Maribor against an association and its legal representative, for subsidy fraud involving three Erasmus+ projects, financed by the EU.

On Wednesday, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Bucharest (Romania) filed an indictment at the Bucharest Tribunal against four Romanian citizens, for fraud and forgery of documents involving funding for young farmers from the diaspora.

In the context of a large-scale investigation led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Athens (Greece), several house searches, arrests and seizures have taken place, in a probe into an alleged criminal organisation suspected of a €36.4 million VAT fraud and a €9.6 million EU subsidy fraud.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb (Croatia) has filed an indictment against two suspects, including a public official, for subsidy fraud and abuse of office and authority, following an investigation into projects for building a winery and planting a vineyard, co-funded by the EU.

Today, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its judgment in Case C-281/22, G. K. e.a. (Parquet européen). This is the first case in which a national court (the Oberlandesgericht Wien/Higher Regional Court of Vienna, Austria) requested a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice to interpret provisions of Council Regulation (EU) 1017/1939 – ‘the EPPO Regulation’. The ruling confirms that the EPPO Regulation has created a new and advanced system for cooperation between prosecutors when fighting cross-border criminality, which allows the EPPO to carry out its investigations timely and efficiently, while ensuring the protection of the rights of the concerned persons.

Today, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb (Croatia) filed an indictment at Zagreb’s County Court against one Croatian citizen, for subsidy fraud and forgery of documents.

According to the evidence, the accused submitted, between 2018 and 2021, two requests in the name of a family farm to obtain grants from Croatia’s Rural Development Programme.

Today, the European Chief Prosecutor addressed a letter to the European Commission in line with Recitals 9, 16 and 17 of Regulation (EU) 2020/2092 of 16 December 2020 on a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the budget of the European Union (Conditionality Regulation), pointing at recent legislative amendments proposed by the Slovak government concerning the Criminal Procedure Code, the Criminal Code, the Act on the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Act on the Protection of Whistle-blowers.