The European Public Prosecutor’s Office

"How did the European Public Prosecutor’s Office go from pipedream to reality, especially in light of member-states’ major concerns about loss of national sovereignty to supranational judicial authority? Laura Schmeer explains in this ground-breaking book that it was all about the power of ideas and discourse, wielded to great effect by the Commission as discursive policy entrepreneur in the complicated negotiations with member-states' leaders in the Council, the European Parliament, and national parliaments.  A must-read for all those interested in the increasing empowerment of the EU in the judicial realm."
 —Vivien A. Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Professor Emerita, Boston University, USA.

This book offers a comprehensive account of the creation of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and the development of a supranational criminal justice system by national and European institutional actors. It analyses the emergence of an EU authority in criminal justice, one of the last bastions of national sovereignty, over time. It explains how and why core state powers were delegated to this new European law enforcement body and how sovereignty was reconfigured in this context. The EPPO is the most recent and most consequential addition to the institutional landscape of EU criminal justice, a domain with enormous potential for further integration but which is exceptionally sensitive regarding national sovereignty, the monopoly on the legitimate use of force, and the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual. Yet, criminal justice has been a blind spot for many EU scholars and, so far, monopolised by legal analysis. This book examines the most significant EU criminal justice actor with fresh methodological approaches: it adopts a truly interdisciplinary approach involving both legal arguments and political conflicts and tensions. The book, thus, reveals the political dimension of the domain, thereby illuminating how sovereignty is understood by national and European decision-makers today and negotiated in an intricate process of accommodating conflicting norms and interests.

Laura Schmeer obtained her Ph.D. in Political and Social Sciences from Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, in January 2024. Her work focuses on EU institutions and decision-making, EU bodies and agencies, and the EU Justice and Home Affairs domain.