The European Public Prosecutor Laura Covesi has questioned the judicial system in our country.
During her speech today at the Delphi Economic Forum, Laura Covesi, addressing the question of who has the final say on the renewal of the mandate of the three Greek prosecutors serving in the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, i.e. the Supreme Court or the Collegial Body (College) of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, has made no shortage of threats.
“The regulation is very clear,” he said, and went on to say that the College of European Public Prosecutors renewed the terms of the two Greek prosecutors by following the same procedure applied to over 100 European prosecutors in 22 member states. “This is not in dispute. If anyone believes that the College did not take the right decision, they can appeal to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Otherwise, there is no reason,” he said. Asked who has an interest in removing the two prosecutors handling OPECE cases, Covesi replied, “They did an excellent job. What is the reason not to renew their mandate?”
The European prosecutor, in her discussion with Pavlos Tsimas, said among other things that she agrees with the position expressed by both the Greek prime minister and other members of the Greek government that procedures involving political figures should be accelerated.
“I have seen the announcements that have been made and I agree that the procedures should be done quickly. We know there is an expectation from the public to clarify what happened. But everyone needs to understand that we are human beings. And also, we only have 24 hours in which to work. And maybe we need to get some sleep. And our resources are very limited.So far, in this investigation, we only have one police officer working with our two prosecutors, three people who have to evaluate thousands of documents. They have to listen to hundreds of wiretaps. It’s not easy. But the good thing is that we have an agreement.”
She spoke about the meetings she had yesterday when she arrived in Athens: “Yesterday, we had a very good meeting with the Minister of Interior and we will have more resources to go further in this investigation. I had this discussion with the Minister of Justice about changes in legislation.I understood that they want to do something to speed up the process. I really welcome that. And I agree that we need to do something. I also expressed an opinion. Again, it’s not that I asked for something from the Greek authorities, but we have a review of 24 different court systems and we have a good view of what needs to be done.”
As for the allegations that EPPO handled the OPECE case “in instalments”, Covesi said she categorically rejects them. He added that he does not comment on statements made by politicians. “I don’t comment on what politicians say. I reject every allegation and stand by every judge, such allegations are not true. I think all this noise is an attempt to divert attention from the substance of the issue. And the substance is not about the renewal of the prosecutor’s term of office, but what happened at the OPEKEPE. I remind you what I said in October here in Greece:OPECPEPE is an acronym for corruption and nepotism. I have confidence in the Greek citizens that they will be able to focus on what they need to do“. “What is mentioned in the dossier is defined as crimes in all EU member states. Nobody in the world will convince me that these are part of the work of politicians,” she added.
The cases are in court
Asked when she thinks the European Public Prosecutor’s Office will be ready to bring the whole case to light, Laura Covesi replied. In some of the cases, we have already completed the investigation. We already have some decisions. If we talk about this particular case, about the waiver of immunity, in some of the cases, we are continuing the investigation; because this is probably the most well-known investigation at the moment. Yesterday, we received the answer from the parliament. I think it’s very good. It shows that everybody wants to know what happened. That will be a priority for us. I hope, I hope we can continue this investigation at a very fast pace. I am very pleased that we have had this agreement with the Home Secretary to appoint some police officers to work on these particular cases. That will be very helpful. And it will enable us to move forward with the case.”
There is no such thing as a universally “clean” country
He went on to say that there is no such thing as a universally “clean” country and that there is fraud everywhere. “For me, it’s important just to give you an example.This year, we have twice the number of new cases registered in Greece because many citizens have sent complaints to us. Athis is a good sign. They trust what we do. But what I can tell you is that our colleagues here at EPPO in Athens are very good. And I have to admire their courage and their determination and their activity to change that. I keep hearing, ‘this is how we do things in Greece.’
“I had heard that it’s a very corrupt country and I had the impression that maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Now, as European Public Prosecutor, after five years of EPPO, knowing exactly what is going on in 24 member states, I have to tell you, there is no clean country. There is no such thing as a clean country. There is corruption everywhere. There is fraud everywhere. Maybe the level is a little bit higher or not. Maybe there are systemic issues or not. But the fact that you don’t discover and investigate doesn’t make you a clean country,” he concluded.
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