The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), headed by Laura Kövesi, has published its new annual report. According to the report, Croatia continues to have the highest number of complaints filed with this authority.

Last year, the EPPO central office received 2,194 applications from citizens, of which 1,770 were rejected because the EPPO was not competent. A further 300 complaints were submitted to the local EPPO offices, but these were also classified as unfounded, i.e., they did not relate to offences that fall within the EPPO’s jurisdiction.

433 applications from citizens of Croatia

Last year, most applications were submitted by citizens from Croatia, totalling 433, followed by Belgium with 221 applications, Germany with 199, Bulgaria with 179 and Romania with 156. 132 applications came from countries in which the EPPO does not operate and a further 279 from non-EU countries.

Croatia is also one of the 19 countries in which EPPO confiscated illegally acquired property last year. According to the report, this happened a total of 475 times. In addition to Croatia, such properties were also seized in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

According to the report, seven court proceedings initiated by the EPPO are pending in Croatia. A total of 18 people has been charged in nine cases. Four cases were handed over by the EPPO to the national judicial authorities.

Damage of almost 278 million euros

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office in Croatia has initiated a total of 47 investigations involving damages totalling almost 278 million euros. Around 29 million euros of this relates to tax fraud.

Three investigations with a cross-border dimension are currently underway. The seizure of illegally acquired assets totalling 1.6 million euros was ordered for 2023.

According to the report, 36 investigations were launched last year into possible damage to EU funds totalling 69 million euros.

Most of these relate to regional development programmes, 25 in total, while 13 investigations were launched for possible damage to the agricultural fund. Two investigations are being carried out into damage to recovery and resilience programmes.