Slovenia Criticised for Delay in Choosing EU Graft-Fighting Prosecutors

Despite repeated calls from EU officials, Slovenia has not yet selected prosecutors to delegate to the newly established EU prosecutor's office, which will investigate fraud, corruption and money laundering involving the EU budget.

On Monday, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders reiterated his call for Slovenia to appoint prosecutors.

"We need two European delegated prosecutors from Slovenia," Reynders told a press conference after a meeting of the EU's Justice and Home Affairs Council, adding that the issue will be discussed with the Slovenian government.

"We asked the Slovenian government to provide a written explanation about the reason why it was impossible to go to the end of the procedure for the designation," he said.

Slovenia has not appointed the prosecutors for six months, despite the warnings. On May 27, the Slovenian government decided to annul the process of selecting prosecutors who had been proposed by the country's Prosecution Council, which nominated Matej Ostir and Tanja Frank Eler.

This prompted Justice Minister Lilijana Kozlovic to resign.

According to Slovenian media, the government said that the Prosecution Council had only put forward two candidates for the two posts although the law says a list of six candidates should have been chosen.

But Kozlovic insisted that the Justice Ministry acted in line with the law.

While the government insists that this is just a matter of procedure, some observers believe that the Prosecution Council's candidates were not to the liking of Prime Minister Janez Jansa because of their role in the cases in which he has been implicated.

Slovenian media suggested that Jansa allegedly is against Frank Eler because he was involved in a case...