CELS Lunchtime Seminars: 'Sense and Admissibility: Cross-Border Investigations Conducted by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office'

Speaker: Dr András Csuri, Vienna University of Economics and Business

Biography: András Csúri, PhD is a postdoctoral research fellow funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Before taking up his current position, he held academic posts at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg, Germany, and the universities of Vienna and Utrecht.  His research and lectures focus on comparative and European criminal law, and he has contributed to various academic research projects in this area. Notably, he was a member of the study group that developed model rules for the investigations of the European Public Prosecutor's Office.  He is an editor of the Max Planck journal EUCRIM, and, since 2020, the co-author, with John R. Spencer, of the chapter on EU criminal law in the textbook European Union Law by Barnard and Peers.

Abstract: The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is the first EU body to be granted the authority to initiate criminal investigations and prosecutions within Member States. Having commenced operations in 2021, the EPPO was primarily established to address EU budget fraud more effectively than Member States could manage, in both domestic and cross-border cases. However, concerns were raised from the outset about a single European office applying different national laws and standards in its cross-border investigations, which operate under a unique framework that differs from traditional forms of judicial cooperation.  Given that the Commission is currently evaluating the EPPO Regulation a thorough examination is pertinent. The presentation therefore focuses on the sense and consistency of cross-border EPPO investigations in their own right, and in comparison with other EU instruments used in this area, such as the European Investigation Order (EIO) and Joint Investigation Teams (JITs); and the quality and admissibility of the evidence gathered as a result.  The analysis will demonstrate that the present design of the Office enables autonomous, binding EU decisions to prosecute budgetary fraud at the national level, producing tangible results. However, in the absence of coherent strategies for addressing legal diversity, the framework for gathering evidence in its cross-border investigations is less stable than that provided by the EIO and JITs.
 

(This session will not be recorded.)

Please note: this event is a hybrid event - it will take place in person in the Cambridge Law Faculty. For those who are unable to make it in person, please register to attend via Zoom.