The head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, Laura Kövesi, arrived this morning at the Ministry of Justice, where she met with Minister George Florides.

In a statement outside the ministry, Kövesi said that “we will discuss everything,” noting that “there is a lot of noise around our cases” and announcing that “we will explain a lot more tomorrow.”

Asked about the possibility of other cases related to the OPEKEPE, he limited himself to answering “let’s discuss it tomorrow”, without giving further details.

It should be noted that the visit of the head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office coincides with the debate in the Greek Parliament’s plenary session on whether or not to lift the immunity of 13 New Democracy MPs allegedly involved in the OPEKEPE case.

“The issue of whether or not to extend the term of office of the three Greek Europrosecutors, which expires next June, is not in the hands of either the Ministry of Justice or the Government, but in the hands of the composition of the members of the Supreme Judicial Council for Civil and Criminal Justice (SCCJ) of the Supreme Court.” will reportedly be the response of Justice Minister George Florides, in case an issue is raised by the head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office Laura Covesi during her visit to the Justice Ministry today.

Ms. Kövesi’s next stops today are with the Minister of Economy and Finance, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, and the Minister of Citizen Protection, Michael Chrysochoidis, while tomorrow, Thursday, the head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office will attend the 11th Delphi Economic Forum, entitled “The Shock of the New” and will answer questions from journalist Pavlos Tzima.

Pasylar Tzimki, who will address the questions of Pavel Tzimki’s questions on the topic of “The Future of Europe”.

Ms Kövesi’s visit to these three ministries coincides with the day when the issue of the lifting or not of the immunity of the MPs allegedly involved in the OPEKEPE case will be debated in Parliament, according to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office’s files forwarded to Parliament.

Ms. Kövesi’s meeting with the Minister of Justice was booked some time ago, but she has not informed the reason why she requested the meeting, that is, without a specific agenda. During Mrs. Corvesi’s visit to the Ministry of Justice today, Deputy Minister of Justice Ioannis Bougas will also be present.

During Mrs. Kövesi’s visit to the Justice Ministry, the issue of extending the term of office of three Greek delegated European prosecutors, Popi Papandreou, Chariklia Thanou, and Dionysis Mouzakis, whose term expires at the end of the current judicial year, i.e., at the end of next June, is expected to be raised.

One of the hot topics that have been on the news table lately is, on the one hand, the two files on the OPEKEPE sent by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and allegedly involving political figures and, on the other hand, the unanimous decision of the College of European Prosecutors in Luxembourg, for a 5-year extension of the term of office of three controversial Greek delegated European prosecutors.

The Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court, as required by law, has since last December sent a request for expressions of interest to the Justice Ministry to fill the three positions in question.

Florides, in turn, sent the questions to the Supreme Court, so that the Supreme Judicial Council of Politics can take the relevant decisions, which is expected to meet on this issue within the next month, although no exact date has been set so far.

Following this, it is reportedly considered that the issue of extending or not the term of office of the three Greek Europrosecutors is no longer in the competence of either the Minister of Justice or the Government, but in the discretion of the composition of the members of the High Council of Justice who will be called upon to decide.

The extension of the term of office of the three Greek-appointed European Prosecutors by the College, following a proposal by Ms. Covesi, has provoked strong political reactions and questions as to whether this can be done unilaterally by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

According to authoritative circles of both the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Criminal Court, the authority to appoint and extend the term of office of the Greek-appointed European Public Prosecutors belongs exclusively to the HCJ in accordance with the Constitution (Article 90) and the legislation (Article 5 of Law 4786/2021 on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office).

However, the head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has not requested a meeting with either the President of the Supreme Court, Anastasia Papadopoulou, or the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Konstantinos Tzavellas. It is recalled that both the president and the prosecutor of the Supreme Court participate in the APA.

It has been done before

The same circles, who, for obvious reasons, keep their anonymity, recalled that a similar incident had arisen in the past with the extension of the term of office of a Greek European Public Prosecutor.

At that time, Ms. Kövesi had expressed a strong interest and exerted pressure for the HCA to approve the extension of the term of office of a particular prosecutor. In fact, a casus belli (cause for war) had been raised in case the request for extension of tenure was not granted by the HCA.

Nevertheless, the HCJ did not extend the term of office of the Greek European Public Prosecutor in question. Since then, however, doubts have been raised on the part of the European Prosecutor as to the qualifications of the persons whom the ECJ had decided to serve in Luxembourg.