Rafael Catalá reiterates Spanish commitment to creating European Public Prosecutor's Office

Hence, even though the Spanish minister recognises that the proposal put forward by the Council Presidency far from provide this institution with the strength and powers defended by the Spanish position, he believes it could constitute the right basis for its creation and achieving certain reasonable minimum levels for the Public Prosecutor's Office to be an operational and recognizable body.

The duties and powers eventually given to the new institution will need to be further defined over the coming months. However, and with the detailed text already drafted, it will lead to the launch of investigations by a public prosecutor into possible fraud offences involving European funds, especially those related to EU subsidies to Member States. The initiative is in line with the reform of the Spanish Criminal Procedure Act being proposed by Rafael Catalá so that public prosecutors become responsible for the investigation and examination of such cases.

Furthermore, at this JHA Council, agreements were reached on the final texts of both the Directive to combat fraud involving the financial interests of the European Union through criminal channels (PIF Directive) and, in particular, the new Anti-Terrorist Directive, the drafting of which considered numerous initiatives promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Justice in the recent reform of the Spanish Criminal Code, such as the criminalisation of self-training, the blocking and removal of websites with terrorist content, the aggravation of terrorist conduct aimed at minors and greater protection for the victims of terrorist offences.

Finally, this Council meeting also discussed a number of issues from the proposed regulations on digital content supply contracts, which proposes the adoption of rules to standardise the rights that protect consumers during both cross-border acquisitions and those made within the territory of the State of primary residence.