By Gabriel Ani
BRUSSELS (chatnewstv.com) — The Council of the European Union on Wednesday appointed Jennifer Vanderputten of Belgium and Pavel Zeman of Czechia as new European prosecutors to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, as part of a partial renewal of the body’s governing college.
The two prosecutors will serve non-renewable six-year terms beginning in July 2026, replacing the current European prosecutors for Belgium and Czechia whose mandates are set to expire. The appointments are part of a broader rotation involving seven European prosecutors.
European prosecutors supervise investigations and prosecutions at the EU level and, together with the European Chief Prosecutor, form the EPPO College. The Council appoints one European prosecutor for each participating member state.
Under the selection process, each member state nominates three candidates. A panel then assesses the nominees, issues reasoned opinions and ranks those who meet the conditions. The Council selects and appoints one candidate per state to serve as European prosecutor.
The EPPO is an independent EU body responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes affecting the bloc’s financial interests, including fraud, corruption and cross-border VAT fraud involving more than 10 million euros ($10.8 million).
By the end of 2024, the EPPO had 2,666 active investigations, with an estimated total damage exceeding 24.8 billion euros ($26.8 billion), according to EU data.
The office, based in Luxembourg, began operations at the end of 2020. It carries out prosecutions before national courts in participating member states. Laura Kövesi has served as European Chief Prosecutor since 2019.
Twenty-four EU countries currently participate in the EPPO, including Belgium, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and others across the bloc.
