The Justice Ministry stated on Thursday that the opinions of the newly-appointed State Attorney-General on the Zagreb office of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) do not bring into question the further functioning of the office in Croatia.

Turudic, whose appointment as the new State Attorney-General was confirmed by the parliament on Wednesday and who will succeed the outgoing State Attorney-General Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek upon the expiry of her term in May, said in an interview with N1 Zagreb on Thursday that he was not sure that an office of the EPPO should have been set up in Croatia.

The EPPO is composed of two levels: the central level and the decentralised (national) level.  The EPPO’s decentralised level consists of the European Delegated Prosecutors (EDPs) in the 22 participating EU Member States. The central level supervises the investigations and prosecutions carried out by the EDPs at the national level, who operate with complete independence from their national authorities.

The ministry says in a press release that since the very start of the EPPO’s work, Croatia had supported the establishment of that independent agency for the prosecution of criminal offences committed against the European Union’s financial interests.

“Croatia was among the first 18 member-countries that supported the foundation of the EPPO agency and joined efforts to boost cooperation back in April 2017, before the adoption of the Regulation on the EPPO and the start of the work of the EPPO Office,” the ministry says.

The political decision of the Croatian government to join the efforts to establish the EPPO and form a department of European Delegated Prosecutors shows its commitment to combating corruption and all forms of crime detrimental to the financial interests of the European Union, and Croatia as a member-state, the ministry says.

The reflections of the newly-appointed State Attorney-General who presented them during his interview with N1 are general and do not bring into question the further functioning of the EPPO, the Justice Ministry says.

Turudić said that he was not sure Croatia should have established the EPPO office because a number of countries did not have it and “the situation there is better.” He added, however, that the decision on the establishment of the EPPO was a political one and should be respected.

Twenty-two of the 27 EU member-states have EPPO decentralised level offices.