Revision of the OLAF Regulation: Parliament's second reading
The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) was set to assume its investigative and prosecutorial tasks as of November 2020. It became therefore necessary to render the OLAF and EPPO Regulations compatible. Against this backdrop, the Commission adopted the proposal amending Regulation 883/2013 concerning investigations conducted by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) as regards cooperation with the EPPO and the effectiveness of OLAF investigations.
At the same time, the revision of the OLAF Regulation offered the opportunity to further improve the functioning of OLAF and its investigations. As, after three trilogue meetings, the interinstitutional negotiations led to a compromise, the provisional agreement was submitted as a whole to the CONT Committee for confirmation by way of a single vote. The agreement was endorsed by CONT on 15 October 2020.
Following the confirmation of the provisional agreement, the CONT Chair sent a letter to the German Presidency indicating that the CONT Committee would recommend to the Plenary that the Council's position is to be accepted without amendments, subject to legal-linguistic verification, at Parliament's second reading. The Council has on 4 December 2020 adopted its first reading position on the basis of this compromise text, and therefore, the CONT Committee voted on its recommendation for the plenary in an extraordinary CONT meeting on 14 December 2020.