European Public Prosecutor's Office: Council appoints new prosecutors for France and Malta 14:40 The Council today appointed two new prosecutors to the European Public[...]

The Council today appointed two new prosecutors to the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO): Philippe Jaeglé for France and Omar Caruana for Malta.

Role and mandate

European prosecutors supervise investigations and prosecutions. Together with the European Chief Prosecutor, they form the EPPO College. The Council appoints a European prosecutor for each participating member state.

The two new prosecutors are appointed for a non-renewable term of six years, from July 2026. These appointments form part of a partial renewal of the EPPO College, which amount to the replacement of seven European prosecutors whose mandates expire in July 2026. Two new prosecutors for Belgium and the Czech Republic were appointed earlier this year.

Selection process

Each member state nominates three candidates for the position of European prosecutor.

Following the nomination phase, a selection panel draws up reasoned opinions and ranks the nominated candidates for each member state who fulfilled the conditions. The Council then selects and appoints one of the candidates to be the European prosecutor for their member state.

Background

The EPPO is an independent body of the EU responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing crimes against the financial interests of the Union (e.g. fraud, corruption, cross-border VAT fraud above €10 million) to judgment. By the end of 2025, the EPPO had 3 602 active investigations, for a total estimated damage of over €67.27 billion.

The EPPO carries out acts of prosecution and exercises the functions of prosecutor in the competent courts of the member states. Laura Kövesi has been the European Chief Prosecutor since 2019.

Currently 24 member states participate in the EPPO: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. Hungary formally notified the Commission and the Council of its intention to join the EPPO at the end of May 2026.Once Hungary joins the EPPO, all member states will have joined the enhanced cooperation (Ireland and Denmark have an opt out from certain EU cooperation on justice and home affairs).

The EPPO started operations at the end of 2020. The office is based in Luxembourg.

• European Public Prosecutor's Office (background information)
• EPPO: Council appoints new prosecutors for Belgium and Czechia (press release, 11 February 2026)