European Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruţa Kövesi has criticised Malta for not doing enough to clamp down on EU fraud and corruption.

As reported by EUObserver, Kövesi told MEPs yesterday that when she visited Malta, the authorities kept passing the buck with regards to responsibility on detecting such crimes.

“I visited Malta. I had meetings with the national authorities and after two days it was very difficult for me to identify the institution that is responsible for detecting crimes,” she said.

“All of them said that ‘it’s not me. It’s them.’ And when I visited them, they said ‘it’s not us’.”

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office was set up in 2017 to investigate and prosecute cases of fraud involving EU funds of over €10,000 as well as large cases of cross-border VAT fraud. Kövesi became the first European Chief Prosecutor two years later.

Launched last June, it has so far seized some €147 million in assets, made arrests, and currently has 515 active investigations totalling an estimated €5.4 billion in damages.

All EU member states except for Ireland, Hungary, Poland and Sweden have signed up to the office, while Denmark has a special opt-out from the area of freedom, security and justice.

Malta is the only participating member that has yet to open a single investigation, with 576 cases opened in total across all participating member states.

“You cannot find it if you don’t search, especially revenue fraud,” Kövesi said as she called for a revision of the EPPO’s rules.