Seminar with Mar Jimeno Bulnes. Mar Jimenos Buelnes is Professor of Procedural Law, University of Burgos and currently Visiting Researcher at the University of Gothenburg. During the seminar she will present work in progress on her ongoing research project.
The introduction of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) has brought about a real revolution in national criminal procedure in a number of Member States of the European Union. This has taken place through the enactment of Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 of 12 October 2017 implementing enhanced cooperation on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (the ‘EPPO’) between 16 Member States at the time. The legislative process has been arduous and complex, taking more than 20 years for the initial proposal for a European Prosecutor contained in the well-known Corpus Juris project to see the light of day. Proof of this is the adoption procedure, not under the unanimity rule but through the enhanced cooperation mechanism provided for in Article 86(1)(III) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Spain played, together with Germany and France, an important role in the negotiations leading up to the establishment of the EPPO, even though it subsequently had difficulties in incorporating the new European body into the existing national criminal procedure model, which is still based on 19th century criminal procedural legislation, the Criminal Procedure Act (Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal 1882). By contrast, other countries such as Sweden are not yet participating in this initiative, although the Swedish government has already announced its forthcoming accession, as confirmed by Swedish Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer on 26 January 2024. In the same way, future and necessary legal reforms have been announced in Sweden in order to integrate the European Public Prosecutor's Office into the Swedish system, making it compatible with its national criminal procedure.
The incorporation of the European Public Prosecutor's Office into national criminal prosecution systems does not come free of charge, but requires a corresponding adaptation at national and not only European level. It is therefore the purpose of this research to examine the new European and national criminal procedure scenario following the implementation of the new European body (the EPPO), as both levels and/or scenarios will have to be understood and coordinated. The European scenario, and thus the European Public Prosecutor's Office in this area, serves as a trigger for the modification of the national scenario, as is now proposed in Spain, given the existence to date of a model of judicial instruction by the Judge of the Investigative. Less impact is foreseen in the case of Sweden, which already has a model of instruction by the Public Prosecutor.
This is why a comparative perspective on Spain and Sweden is used here in a twofold sense. The first is to examine the procedure for incorporating the EPPO in a country that already participates in it (Spain) and the state of affairs in other countries that do not yet participate in it (Sweden). Secondly, to analyze the consequences and impact of the new body on the national criminal procedure in two countries with different models of investigation: judicial (Spain) and public prosecution (Sweden).
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The seminar will be held in the seminar room at Stockholm Centre for Commercial law (SCCL). Please register by 10 June 2024. Coffee and sandwiches will be served to registered participants.
Warm welcome!
Antonina Bakardjieva Engelbrekt and Björn Lundqvist