A dispute between Croatia and the European Union over who ought to examine a high-profile corruption case involving a former minister deepened on Thursday after the bloc’s chief prosecutor stated Zagreb had issues upholding the rule of regulation.
The row erupted after Croatian authorities ordered the arrest of ex-Well being Minister Vili Beros on suspicion of corruption final week – after which the European Public Prosecutor’s Workplace (EPPO) stated it had been operating its personal wider investigation into the case and had been about to order searches.
Beros denies any wrongdoing. He was fired and detained for one month, pending the investigations.
Each side stated they’d not been knowledgeable of the opposite investigation. The EU stated it ought to take over. However Croatia’s State Lawyer Normal, Ivan Turudic, dominated this week that his nation’s Workplace for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) would prosecute the case.
The EU chief prosecutor stated they handed over their recordsdata on Thursday to Croatia – following EU guidelines – however issued a press release saying they strongly disagreed with the choice.
They stated they’d written to the European Fee “underlining Croatia’s systemic challenges in upholding the rule of regulation,” with out going into better element.
They stated the State Lawyer Normal had based mostly “his choice solely on USKOK’s interpretation, with out giving the EPPO the prospect to specific its place, and thus undermining the impartiality of the battle decision”. It was not instantly clear if the EU prosecutors had been planning to take extra concrete motion to reclaim the case.
The EPPO has stated a prison group looking for to safe financing for the sale of medical robotic units in a number of hospitals was suspected of giving bribes to officers to attempt to win contracts for initiatives, together with EU-funded ones.
Turudic stated his workplace was performing based mostly on the relevant Croatian regulation, and the case was not associated to EU funds.
