Credits: WikimediaCommons, Laura Codruta Kövesi

The EU`s new anti-graft hero
By David Meier

The European Parliament and the member states of the EU have agreed to appoint former Romanian Anti-Corruption Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruţa Kövesi as EU Chief Prosecutor despite fierce opposition of the Romanian government. She has a reputation of being a tough corruption fighter and her new post enables her to prove this on a European scale.The decision is an important step for the EU`s quest for tackling the huge societal challenges of graft and misuse of public funding.

On 24 September 2019, representatives of the European Parliament and the Council (i.e. the governments of the member states) came to an agreement as it comes to the appointment of Laura Codruţa Kövesi as head of the EU`s Public Prosecutors Office (EPPO) or, in other words, its Chief Prosecutor. This newly-created institution`s task is to prosecute defendants in cases of crimes against the EU budget, e.g fraud, graft or cross-border VAT fraud. The EPPO will be in charge for the investigation of those offences in 22 out of 28 member states, all but the United Kingdom, Sweden, Hungary, Poland, Ireland and Denmark.

Laura Codruţa Kövesi has an impressive track record of fighting corruption. In 2013, she became chief prosecutor of Romania`s National Anti-Corruption Bureau. The establishment of this agency in 2003 was a precondition for Romania`s accession to the EU in 2007. During Kövesi`s tenure she investigated more than 4000 powerful people ranging from politicians and members of the public service to representatives of the judicial system such as prosecutors and judges. Thanks to her more than 70 politicians were convicted among them 2 former prime ministers.

However, the influential elites stroke back. Due to her oppositon towards a legal reform benefitting corrupt politicians and her intention to investigate the, at that time most powerful Romanian politician, ex-party leader of the Romanian Socialists Liviu Dragnea, Laura Codruţa Kövesi was sacked in June 2018 at the behest of the former Romanian justice minister Tudorel Toader. Kövesi has lodged an individual complaint with the European Court for Human Rights against her dismissal.  Her enemies did not even bother to incriminate her. Critics from civil society claim that the charges against her are purely politically motivated. Besides, Romanian prime minister Viorica Dăncilă lobbied in the EU Council, i.e. the EU institution gathering the Heads of member states and governments, against Kövesi`s appointment as head of EPPO which is very unusal as member states normally try to promote candidacies of their own nationals for influential posts in the EU.

The Council and the European Parliament have to agree on the appointment of the head of EPPO. This proved difficult as the majority of Council members preferred French candidate, Jean-François Bohnert, while the European Parliament pushed for the designation of Kövesi. The Parliament eventually prevailed thanks to Kövesi`s experience and the high simbolism of her nomination.

In the course of the last years many European citizens, especially in former communist countries such as Romania, Hungary or the Czech Republic, took to the streets in order to rally against endemic corruption. It is perceived as a major problem and one of the main causes of mass migration of young and educated people, striving for a better future, from eastern European EU member states such as Poland, Hungary, Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria but also western European countries, e.g. Greece and Italy to other member states.

The fact that corruption and the misuse of European funds constitute a huge threat to the existence of the rule of law in member states has been underlined in light of the murder cases Daphne Caruana Galizia and Ján Kuciak in October 2017 and February 2018. Both were journalists who had investigated corruption and the misuse of EU funds in their respective countries Malta and Slovakia.

It is Kövesi`s merit that she has proven that politicians can be made legally accountable in countrys suffering from endemic corruption. Her appointment as head of EPPO is a hopeful sign that the EU is both able and willing to enhance the fight against corruption.