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| - The EU's first prosecutors office set up to tackle suspected fraud involving the bloc's budget will start work from June with Covid recovery funds a key focus, officials said Wednesday. "We are about to launch the first-ever independent EU office to investigate and prosecute crimes affecting the EU budget," Vera Jourova, EU commissioner for values and transparency, told journalists. Jourova said a major task facing the new European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) was monitoring spending of the EU's 750-billion-euro ($900-billion) support package to help the bloc rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. "One of the core missions of the EPPO in the beginning of its operations will be to make sure these funds will be fully used to help our economies and our citizens to recover from the Covid-19 crisis," she said. The EPPO could also be a game-changer in the fight against cross-border VAT fraud, she said. The unit -- headed by Romania's former anti-graft chief Laura Codruta Kovesi -- will be based in Luxembourg and is composed of a team of prosecutors from all 22 participating countries. Sweden, Hungary, Poland, Ireland and Denmark decided not to be involved in the project. The office was meant to start work in 2020, but faced several months of delays as countries failed to delegate their prosecutors on time. Finland and Slovenia have still not nominated their representatives and Brussels has urged them to complete the process "quickly". Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country will take over the EU's rotating presidency from July, said that a decision would be "taken tomorrow" in a video conference with European Parliament president David Sassoli. "We have problems with the procedure and the government will decide how to resolve those problems tomorrow," Jansa told MPs Lubljana. "But this will not prevent the European prosecutor from starting work," he insisted. Nevertheless, Slovenian daily Delo said Jansa had decided to revoke the nominations of two delegated prosecutors put forward by the justice ministry, which have currently been put on hold, and to launch a new tender for candidates. Slovenian prosecutor Drago Sketa angrily dismissed such a suggestion, saying it would interfere with the prosecutors' independence. In a tweet, the EPPO said its chief, Laura Kovesi, "notes the very serious concern of General State Prosecutor Drago Sketa and trusts that the Slovenian government will avoid interference with the independence of prosecutors in Slovenia." alm-bk-bg/jz
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