The Administrative Court has dismissed the lawsuit and request for an interim injunction in the case of the non-appointment of European Delegated Prosecutors. The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit prematurely, as they have not yet received the government’s decision on the appointment of European Delegated Prosecutors, the Administrative Court announced.
In terms of content, the lawsuit filed by the candidates for European Delegated Prosecutors, Tanja Frank Eler and Matej Oštir, meets the condition for a challengeable lawsuit, which would challenge the government’s decision not to familiarise itself with the appointment of the European Delegated Prosecutors, the court explained. However, they had to reject the claim because the procedural preconditions for the initiation and course of the administrative dispute were not met yet. As they explained, the plaintiffs have not yet been served with the government’s decision of the 25th of May, and therefore, they filed the lawsuit prematurely.
“It’s a good thing they were not appointed if they do not even know how to correctly file a lawsuit,” Matej Lahovnik commented on the situation on Twitter.
Last week, Minister of Justice Marjan Dikaučič assured that Slovenia will continue to support the European Public Prosecutor’s Office project and announced the appointment of Slovenian European Delegated Prosecutors as soon as the procedure is completed without any shadow of a doubt regarding any misconduct.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is in charge of prosecuting fraud and misuse of European funds, started its operational work a month ago, even though Slovenia and Finland have not yet appointed their Delegated Prosecutors, and the Slovenian government has decided to repeat the call for the appointment of two European delegated prosecutors because the State Prosecutorial Council had not drawn up a sufficiently large list of candidates – according to the government, the Council should have presented at least six candidates.
Not all Member States of the European Union decided to participate in the European Public Prosecutor’s Office – namely, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, and Poland are not part of the project.
Sara Bertoncelj
