{"id":488630,"date":"2025-10-10T15:15:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T15:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/488630\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T15:15:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T15:15:13","slug":"exclusive-german-leads-race-to-become-eus-next-chief-prosecutor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/488630\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: German leads race to become EU\u2019s next chief prosecutor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four senior prosecutors from across Europe have emerged as top contenders to replace Romania\u2019s Laura Codru\u021ba K\u00f6vesi at the head of the European Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office (EPPO) next year, people familiar with the selection process told Euractiv.<\/p>\n

The job to lead the Luxembourg-based EPPO is one of the bloc\u2019s toughest as it involves coordinating a team of cross-border criminal investigators targeting those accused of fraudulently using EU funds \u2013 from top officials to criminal organisations.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s Andr\u00e9s Ritter, currently the EPPO\u2019s deputy prosecutor, leads the list of candidates, according to three people with knowledge of the confidential process. As a prosecutor with over 25 years of experience at home, Ritter has specialised in white-collar crime and EU subsidy fraud, and leant on his record<\/a>\u00a0when he ran for the post six years ago.<\/p>\n

Ritter is followed by Austria\u2019s Ingrid Maschl-Clausen, also an EPPO prosecutor with experience at the alpine country\u2019s Permanent Representation to the EU and at Eurojust, which helps foster cooperation between the bloc\u2019s law enforcement agencies from an office in The Hague.<\/p>\n

The third candidate is Italy\u2019s Stefano Castellani, who already serves as a delegated prosecutor for the EPPO in Turin, followed by Spain\u2019s Emilio Jes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez Ulled, the top prosecutor for crimes against the public administration in Madrid.<\/p>\n

All four candidates were interviewed in September by top legal experts from across Europe as part of a confidential process, followed by a deliberation on the ranking. The shortlist, already shared with candidates, now has to be sent to both the Council of the EU and the European Parliament, which must jointly agree on a final candidate to replace K\u00f6vesi, who has to step down after six years in post.<\/p>\n

Change at the top of the EPPO is expected in October 2026 and comes as the EU considers reshaping its anti-fraud architecture<\/a>, a move that could grant EPPO expanded powers to investigate and protect the bloc\u2019s next multiannual budget.<\/p>\n

The final selection process is expected to involve political negotiation, and intense scrutiny of the experience and independence of the four listed candidates \u2013 as was the case six years ago when K\u00f6vesi was grilled by MEPs on officials she convicted while working in her native Romania.<\/p>\n

EU\u2019s top prosecutor turns up heat on Greek PM over immunity row<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tEU chief prosecutor Laura K\u00f6vesi ramped up pressure on Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on\u2026\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t4 minutes\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"EU\u2019s\t\t\t<\/p>\n

K\u00f6vesi\u2019s six-year term, which began in 2019, saw the EPPO take on several high-profile investigations \u2014 including cases tied to top Greek ministers<\/a>, EU vaccine procurement negotiations, the European People\u2019s Party, and alleged misuse of EU funds by MEPs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The EPPO declined to comment.<\/p>\n

In\u00e9s Fern\u00e1ndez\u2013Pontes contributed reporting from Madrid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(jp)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four senior prosecutors from across Europe have emerged as top contenders to replace Romania\u2019s Laura Codru\u021ba K\u00f6vesi at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-488630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}