June 2, 2021

Compliance: at the moment

📧 European Public Prosecutor's Office comes on stage: the company having itself become a private prosecutor, are we going towards an alliance of all prosecutors ?

ComplianceTech® ↗️ pour lire cette fiche en français, veuillez cliquer sur le drapeau français

► The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), a major weapon for the Compliance Law.

 

The European Union's prosecutor comes out of its cradle : the "European Public Prosecutor's Office" starts its activities. Long to set up, this European judicial body is linked to delegated prosecutors in the Member States. It is not a simple emanation of national bodies networked; of autonomous competence, it is the organ in the name of which the action is carried out.

In addition to this institutional revolution, there is a substantial revolution: this European Public Prosecutor's Office can prosecute any attack to the "financial interests of the European Union". These "attacks on financial interests" are conceived broadly, including in particular acts of corruption or embezzlement.

First of all, Didier Reynders emphasizes that this puts the rule of Law at the center. It is no longer Europe supporting actions to be coordinated between States, the national prosecution having technical difficulties to cooperate effectively with each other, but the European Public Prosecutor's Office which will allow unified and effective European action between delegated prosecutors.

Secondly, it continues the string of effectiveness between Compliance, located in Ex Ante, Compliance Law consisting in "preventing" and "detecting" such behavior, and the Ex Post, because a judge is sometimes necessary so that the disregard of these Ex Ante obligations is sometimes sanctioned (➡️📝Frison-Roche, M.-A., Compliance and International Public Order: the French conception preserved by the Paris Cour of Appeal, 2021) but also a prosecution: the prosecutor is a major figure in Compliance Law. Indeed, being able to prosecute, the prosecutor can also not prosecute and change its decision to close the file in returns for commitments (Ex Ante) from the company: the "public interest judicial agreements" - CJIP. In fact, through the opportunity to prosecute, will such powerful flexibility be found at European level?

Thirdly, the prospect of prosecution by the European Public Prosecutor's Office will incent in Ex Ante companies to prevent, or to prosecute themselves (➡️🎤Frison-Roche, M.-A. et Roda, J.-C. (dir.), The firm instituted prosecutor and judge of itself by Compliance Law, Lyon, June 23, 2021) the perpetrators of fraud in the interests of the Union European.

At a time when the Union is engaging in direct loans to lend still more, this role of the company, sometimes qualified as "private prosecutor", linked to a prosecutor, now European, is necessary.

Are we moving towards the alliance of all prosecutors?

comments are disabled for this article