Financial crime knows no borders: Europe needs to join forces

By MEPs Barbara Matera and Axel Voss and Věra Jourová, European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality 

Criminals know no borders. Today, organised crime organisations are making billions of euros in profit every year by circumventing national rules and escaping criminal prosecution. National prosecutors often lack the tools to act quickly and efficiently across borders. In the interests of all taxpayers, Europe needs to join forces by establishing a European Public Prosecutor.

Taxpayer’s money is at stake

Every year national budgets lose at least €50 billion in revenues from VAT all over Europe through cross-border fraud like carousel fraud. And, in spite of extremely strict rules and controls, criminals are sometimes still able to tap into money from EU funds through similar methods. We need an effective solution to counter these negative impacts on the EU budget, but also on national budgets.

Every year national budgets lose at least €50 billion in revenues from VAT all over Europe through cross-border fraud

National prosecutors are doing an excellent job and they prosecute cases of fraud actively. But their tools for stopping big cross-border financial crime are limited. They can cooperate ad-hoc through joint investigation teams. Yet this usually involves lengthy procedures and is not the best way to build up expertise and know-how for future cases. Whenever they need to seize evidence abroad, whenever the investigation needs to take place swiftly and simultaneously in different countries, they are today simply not well equipped.

A European Public Prosecutor to fight cross-border financial crime

This is a pan-European problem that cannot be addressed by national authorities alone. The European Public Prosecutor's Office will provide the missing tools: swift investigations across the EU and real-time information exchange. The European Public Prosecutor will work with delegated prosecutors from each country, bringing together their national expertise and coordinating it at EU level.

National prosecutors often lack the tools to act quickly and efficiently across borders. In the interests of all taxpayers, Europe needs to join forces by establishing a European Public Prosecutor.

We want to build a strong, independent and efficient body, that will develop expertise in fighting financial crimes across the EU. This body would be similar to the national anti-mafia prosecutor's office set up in Italy, which has successfully combatted mafia criminal activities for over 20 years. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office will complement the important work of Eurojust, the EU agency dealing with judicial cooperation in criminal matters, allowing it to dedicate more resources to the fight against terrorism or other crimes.

No more time to waste

We have negotiated this proposal for three years; now it is time to move from words to action. More than anything, European citizens want concrete results from the EU these days. We call on all Member States to work hard to agree on a text by the end of this year.

It is the taxpayer's money that is at stake – we have no more time to waste.