On 27 July 2020, the Council appointed the European prosecutors for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) of all 22 participating EU Member States. The appointments were delayed since Malta had failed to deliver a sufficient shortlist of its candidates in line with the nomination rules.

The European prosecutors will supervise investigations and prosecutions and will constitute the EPPO College, together with the European Chief Prosecutor. European prosecutors are appointed for a non-renewable term of six years. The Council may decide to extend the mandate for a maximum of three years at the end of this period. As part of the transitional rules for the first mandate following the creation of the EPPO, European prosecutors from one third of the Member States, determined by drawing lots, will hold a three-year non-renewable mandate. This is the case for the prosecutors from Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Netherlands, Austria, and Portugal.

The EPPO is expected to take up its operational work at the end of 2020. It will be based in Luxembourg. In October 2019, the Council already appointed the Romanian prosecutor Laura Kövesi as head of the office (see eucrim 3/2016, p. 164).