The European Public Prosecutor’s Office between counter-terrorism and strengthening of the European citizens’ safety

The European Union needs to be provided with appropriate instruments to face the recent challenges regarding the fight against transnational terrorism, and especially after the facts of Paris in 2015 and of Brussels in 2016. The need is to go beyond the simple emergency measures and to establish a stable mechanism. These serious offences, although carried out on the territory of a single Member State, develop through a preparation process distributed on that of more Member States and non-EU countries. The executing authors are not only citizens of third countries, but more and more often they are EU citizens. Europol and Eurojust, the two agencies responsible for the improvement of the cooperation among the competent authorities in terrorism matters of the Member States have failed so far, thus demonstrating that something more than ancillary bodies is needed. There is a need to create a leading European mechanism in the fight against terrorism. For these reasons, the creation of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office is urgent, one that is able to start investigations on a European basis, facilitate the exchange of information among investigating authorities for evidence purposes in criminal proceedings, prevent and combat terrorist offences with effective actions. The current proposal under discussion in the Council provides the possibility that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office could only act on financial offences and it regulates the creation of a decentralised structure, composed of a central Office and Delegated European Public Prosecutors in the single Member States. As regards the investigative action, a shared and priority competence is provided over the ones of the national prosecutor offices. In addition, the project contains a clause for minimum guarantee regarding the right to defence, strengthening the rights of suspect European citizens and of other involved parties. The legal basis used for the establishment of the EPPO, Article 86 TFEU, provides under paragraph 4 the possibility to extend the competences of the Office to the inclusion of other serious transnational offences, among which there are certainly acts of terrorism. The idea that the territory of the Union, or at least of the Member States which will join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), can be considered as a whole judicial area for investigative purposes on offences within its jurisdiction, and that an exclusive European judicial authority can investigate there, should be seen as an opportunity for an effective response to terrorist threats. Despite this, in the analysis of the current proposal for the establishment of the EPPO, it does not seem plausible to think that it can also deal with these serious offences. Actually, the Member States are opposing this possibility and try to face the terrorism challenges by locking themselves behind national borders. On the contrary, the provision of a competence concerning the fight against these serious offences will provide the Union with an important instrument and will improve the security of the EU citizens.