The Portuguese European prosecutor, José Ranito, says, in an interview with Lusa, that Portugal’s response capacity in the European Public Prosecutor’s Office “is exhausted” and is concerned about the 47% increase in pending cases in just one year and with investigations at a standstill in police bodies.
The prosecutor noted that there are only two accusations completed in four years and no judicial decision has yet been final, despite a conviction in the first instance.
Among these factors are the complexity of the processes, many of them transnational, delaying the investigation phase, but in cases of investigation of fraud with subsidies and payments, there are delays explained by investigations stopped by the police.
“There are investigations that have been opened and are being transferred from year to year without a solution, with significant delays in the investigations. In fact, this is being noticed in the monitoring exercises of our processes in Luxembourg and, therefore, the delay in the Portuguese investigations is being noticed. And it is something that, in fact, I believe we have to seriously reflect on. (…) These results, for me, are quite worrying”, admitted José Ranito.
The delays in investigations in Portugal, explained the prosecutor, are also related “to instability in the investigation teams”.
Often, he said, they are removed from the processes for other steps in other cases, a situation that led the prosecutor to insist on the importance of dedicated teams and specific police training, which allows for faster collaboration with other countries.
Warnings have already been sent to the bodies that cooperate with the EPPO, namely the Judiciary Police, but also, and once again, to the political authorities regarding the lack of human and technical resources necessary for greater speed, with José Ranito stressing in this regard that it is not acceptable to continue to have only two bailiffs dedicated to the two delegations in Portugal, one in Lisbon and the other in Porto.
“It is clear that the response capacity is exhausted”, said the prosecutor, who is awaiting the publication of the ordinance that will implement the reinforcement of resources, “practically four years after” the European body was created.
“In fact, we have been treated a bit like a poor relation, and I understand that the shortage of bailiffs throughout the justice system may be conditioning the response, but we have to be creative and we have to find other alternative means, otherwise what was intended with the so-called reinforced cooperation will be lost”, he warned.
José Ranito also highlighted EPPO’s commitment to the body’s guidelines for asset recovery and that “crime cannot compensate financially”, mentioning the 1.13 billion euros granted in judicial authorizations for asset freezing.
Regarding the changes in Portugal to the extended asset loss regime, the European prosecutor expressed agreement, referring to the country’s alignment with European standards.
Regarding the recent decision on the ‘Admiral’ case – the first Portuguese investigation into EPPO that reached trial, José Ranito highlighted the quick way in which the process occurred at all stages.
He also pointed to operation ‘Admiral’ as an example of the organized crime that EPPO brought to light in the EU, with losses of billions of euros, and the need for the Union to combat its weaknesses and vulnerabilities to crime.
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