Review article
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office and Croatian Criminal Justice: Implementation Requirements and Possible Solutions
Marin Bonačić
orcid.org/0000-0001-9951-0921
; Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) was set up in 2017, after successfully completing the legislative process that began in 2013. The EPPO is conceived as an EU body with legal personality and acts as a single office with a decentralised structure which, in addition to the central office, also operates in the participating EU Member States. Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 of 12 October 2017 implementing
enhanced cooperation on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office sets certain implementing obligations for the national legal systems of those States. Although regulations are EU legal acts that are binding in their entirety and directly applicable, the EPPO Regulation nevertheless requires certain interventions for the purpose of implementation. Specifically, the Regulation refers to the application of national law to the extent that a matter is not regulated by the Regulation, prescribes certain minimum investigative powers that States should provide to the EPPO, and opts for a prosecutorial inquiry model.
The paper discusses the implementation requirements that the Regulation places before the Croatian criminal justice system, especially
with regard to the implementation of the Office’s structure, its material
competence and the exercise of its prosecutorial and investigative powers. It considers what has been done so far, gives an overview of the
proposed solutions, outlines the comparative legal solutions available,
and makes suggestions for resolving some of the requirements. In this
regard, the analysis shows that the powers of the Croatian State Attorney in criminal proceedings are largely in line with the requirements of the Regulation and that there are therefore no major implementation
obligations.
Keywords
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office; EPPO, European Delegated Prosecutors, European Prosecutors, implementation of the EPPO Regulation; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
244941
URI
Publication date:
15.10.2020.
Visits: 1.809 *