"It sometimes happens that limitations periods expire until all procedures are completed, so the culprits to unpunished," Šemeta, the EC member in charge of taxes and anti-fraud, told Vilnius journalists on Monday. He is attending an international conference dedicated to the model of the European Public Prosecutor's Office.
"The main advantage of the European Public Prosecutor's Office is that the evidence collected in one country will not require any additional action to be used in any other country and this, without doubt, should increase the efficiency of such investigations considerably," he said at the news conference.
In his words, currently every country has to repeat actions of criminal processes, require additional information, have to make inquiries and wait until they are answered in accordance to agreements of mutual assistance, which takes a lot of time.
Michele Coninsx, the president of EU legal cooperation in criminal investigations EUROJUST, said that establishment of the European Public Prosecutor's Office will require major reforms in the institution she heads.
"The text itself says that EPPO should be established from EUROJUST and that means that for EUROJUST and the EPPO the is a special relationship – the relationship, which is of essence, which is vital. The commission's intention was to have a parallel launching of two reforms, two proposals – one of reforms of EUROJUST and one of EPPO – have been submitted at the same time, communicated at the same time and this has to be positively acknowledged," she said.
