The establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office – A new Variation of Differentiated Integration and Multilevel Governance

The Treaty of Lisbon paved the way for the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). In June 2021, the EPPO became operational, but only with 22 of 27 EU member states. This paper looks at the establishment of the EPPO as a new variation of differentiated integration and multilevel governance, which have been characterising the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs policies since the Schengen cooperation in the 1990s. In 2017, when the EPPO Regulation was adopted, 20 member states opted for enhanced cooperation; two more have joined the initiative since then, while Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Poland and Sweden opted out. The EPPO’s complex hybrid institutional structure includes a central unit, based in Luxembourg, and the European Delegated Prosecutors which work in the member states’ respective criminal justice systems. The EPPO’s investigation authority is currently limited to cases related to the Union’s financial interests. With a number of member states having opted out, the specific situation of enhanced cooperation makes the EPPO’s tasks more complicated and challenging, and in turn raises questions related to the future role of the anti-fraud office (OLAF) and the other agencies and bodies involved, such as Eurojust. This paper analyses the specific variation of enhanced cooperation developed for the EPPO and situates it in the broader framework of differentiated integration and multilevel governance.