Criminal investigations, interference with fundamental rights and fair trial safeguards in the proceedings of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. A human rights law perspective

The EPPO displays a complex picture in which unprecedented procedural mechanisms coexist with traditional arrangements, such as the view of a public prosecutor’s office as an independent body of justice giving rise to a number of new problems from the perspective of the fundamental rights of the individuals involved in the inquiry of the EPPO. Issues as how fundamental safeguards should be ensured in the proceedings conducted by the European prosecutorial authority, the decision to drop the case, or the distribution of the investigative competences and the reallocation of the case highlight new problems that mainly derive from the concentration of considerable decision-making powers in the hands of Permanent Chambers. This discussion, while calling for confrontation of the new rules with constitutional law, as well as with the European Convention and EU law, raises a systematic problem, namely whether fundamental constitutional-law safeguards should also be ensured across borders ratione personae. The examination of this problem from the angle of the EPPO’s inquiry enhances the need for an understanding of cross-border investigation and prosecution that aims at ensuring full respect for the main criminal law and criminal justice rights of the individuals concerned.