The European Public Prosecutor’s Office will determine how the pre-accession funds intended for the Republic of Moldova are spent, said the European chief prosecutor Laura Codruța Kovesi, who paid an official visit to Moldova. While in Chisinau, she signed a working agreement with the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Moldova. This stipulates the cooperation methods and the way in which information will be exchanged. There were also agreed the communication channels and contact points, IPN reports.
In Chisinau, Laura Codruța Kovesi said that the European prosecutors will be attentive to the way in which the Republic of Moldova spends the funds received from the EU.
“The candidate status will bring a lot of European funds to Moldova. The checking of the way in which this money is spent should be my preoccupation and we should be very attentive for these funds to be spent correctly. This is the reason why I came to Moldova,” Laura Codruța Kovesi stated in the Special Edition on the public TV channel.
The European chief prosecutor spoke about the difficulties experienced in the fight against corruption and the wish of the public to see results immediately.
“There is always the risk that one can be accused of being a prosecutor handling political cases when investigating persons who hold important posts in a party. I also experienced such a problem in Romania. The suspicions are removed when there is a definitive conviction sentence,” stated the official.
Laura Codruța Kovesi noted that the EPPO does not have competence in purely national cases, related to the investigation of acts of corruption committed by Moldovan citizens on the territory of the Republic of Moldova.
“The European Public Prosecutor’s Office can cooperate with Moldovan prosecutors in cases concerning fraud with European funds, money laundering, VAT fraud, acts of corruption or organized crime committed after 2017 – data from which the competence of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office starts,” stated the European chief prosecutor.
