The recent decision by the Plenary of Greece’s Supreme Civil and Criminal Court to dismiss Ms. Kövesi’s appeal as inadmissible—which it did by an overwhelming majority of 72 to 10—leaves little scope for other conclusions.
Ultimately, the Prosecutor’s Office had chose to clash with neither a government nor a specific court, but with the country’s very legal order. And I can’t believe that any supreme court in any democracy on the planet would have accepted that.
To begin with, the showdown makes abslutely no sense. The EPPO is claiming the right to renew the terms of its delegated prosecutors itself.
Nice idea. And highly original. Seeing as I know of no other body in a democratic country that renews itself by itself, and in any which way it sees fit.
If that were the case, the Commission and the European Court of Justice—and anyone else who is tired of relocating—should just renew their own terms, too.
Within the Greek judiciary, administrative changes and transfers have been decided by the Supreme Judicial Council since the early 20th century.
So, the competent body unanimously approved the extension of the terms of three delegated prosecutors for two years, rather than the five years the EPPO had unilaterally decreed.
Big deal, in other words. But the decision so incensed the Chief Prosecutor, she stubbornly launched a war not against the government (which had neither involvement nor jurisdiction), but against the nation.
Since then, she has demanded a cut in EU funding, threatened an appeal to the European Court of Justice, and resorted to other intimidation tactics.
I do not know what she will achieve, or when. In any case, she is stepping down from her position on October 31.
But I would be flabbergasted if the Union declared war on a member state out of sheer stubbornness.
Moreover, the European Court of Justice recently reminded us in a ruling that the Prosecutor’s Office simply investigates the mismanagement of Union funds. Trying these cases is entirely a matter for national justice systems.
So, I just don’t get what the EPPO stands to gain, beyond satisfying its own obstinacy. Not even the intrigues of those who are trying to make their own terms “indefinite”, so they can continue leaking wiretap transcripts to the television channels.
Transcripts which, incidentally, the EPPO obtained thanks to its cooperation with the Greek authorities—about which it has never voiced the slightest complaint.
Hopefully, of course, the matter will end right here and we won’t have to deal with it ever again. But we shall see.
