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On 8 April 2025, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered its second judgment interpreting the EPPO Regulation: EPPO v. I.R.O. and F.J.L.R. (Case C-292/23). This is the Court’s first ruling on Art. 42(1) of the Regulation, which addresses the scope …

A corruption case in Croatia (the Beroš case) recently reached the political level, leading to a positive conflict of competence between the Croatian prosecutorial authorities and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). The circumstances surrounding the debate bear a striking resemblance to the conflict that …

Arts. 85, 86, and 88 TFUE opened up a rich debate on the construction of the European criminal law area. What role will OLAF play in the future as regards the possibilities offered by these new legal bases? The question may surprise those who are not familiar with OLAF’s activities. Indeed, OLAF carries out administrative, not criminal investigations.1 Its competences do not cover only offences but, in a wider sense, irregularities adversely affecting the financial interests of the EU.2 Above all, Regulation 1073/99 explicitly states that OLAF’s investigations shall not affect the powers of Member States to initiate criminal proceedings.3…

I. Introduction The idea of a centralised supranational public prosecutor originates from a revolutionary dream of experts envisaged in the renowned Corpus Juris1 project (1997) and its follow-up study2 (2000). The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) provided the legal basis for a possible establishment of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO),3 and the concept since then has gained further support inter alia through the Action Plan of the Stockholm programme and the recently conducted EPPO Study.4 The synergies and effects of academic research and political realism over little more than a decade are readily apparent. The…

Les débats très vifs sur la création d’un espace judiciaire commun, et tout spécialement les études et les nombreux séminaires organisés à partir de la moitié des années 90 ont finalement porté leurs fruits. Il y a dix ans, les propositions du « Corpus Juris portant dispositions pénales pour la protection des intérêts financiers de l’Union européenne », document dont la première version a été publiée en 19971, ouvrait la perspective audacieuse d’un espace judiciaire pénal commun. L’espace envisagé se fondait essentiellement sur le principe novateur de territorialité unique européenne ainsi que sur la création d’une autorité commune compétente pour…

The creation of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office seems now to be in sight, at least from an EU-constitutional point of view. However, there appear to be two major stumbling blocks, which can be summarised as austerity and complexity. Within the climate of financial austerity in the EU, the Zeitgeist provokes considerations of reduction and economy rather than expansion and creation of new EU institutions on a vertical scale. Finding a politically palatable solution will require not only political will (and/or a sudden event precipitating the need for an EPPO) but will also call for creativity in execution. All the…

This article analyses the complex relationship between administrative and criminal sanctions in Polish law, focusing on tax and social security cases and the constitutional ne bis in idem principle. It centres on the 2011 judgment of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (P 90/08), which held that …

This article analyses the criminal offence of unjustified set-off in Italian tax law, introduced alongside the offence of non-payment of VAT by Legislative Decree No. 74/2000 (Sects. 10-ter and 10-quater) to counter increasingly common forms of tax evasion. It explains set-off as a legal mechanism …

This article examines the European Union’s role and obligations under the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), to which the EU acceded in 2008 as the only regional economic integration organisation. It first outlines the scope and structure of UNCAC and its implementation architecture, including …

This article examines how Council of Europe (CoE) member states address the manipulation of sports results, notably match-fixing, through their criminal law systems and what role future international instruments should play. Building on CoE Recommendation CM/Rec(2011)10 on the promotion of integrity in sport, it maps …