Laura Codruța Kovesi, attack on Nicușor Dan: “I wish the president a lot of sleep, a good sleep” / What he says about appointments to the Prosecutor's Office
Laura Codruța Kovesi, head of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, stated, in an interview for Context.ro, that President Nicușor Dan discouraged, through his statements, the submission of several candidacies for the head of public prosecutor's offices in Romania. At the same time, Kovesi said that he does not intend to enter politics, after his mandate at the EPPO ends.
Laura Codruța Kovesi avoided commenting on the actual appointments of the chief prosecutors, but said that “the procedure in a way was a problem.”
“When the president of the state, the one who appoints to positions, declares during the election campaign, and after, I will negotiate the appointments for the positions of prosecutor general and DNA, it sends a certain signal. And then I know a lot of good prosecutors in the system who did not submit their candidacy,” said Kovesi.
But all these colleagues, when I asked them why you are not running, this was the answer. Well, if he is negotiating positions, what should I do, why should I run? Because the appointment is already negotiated, the name is known. And then why should I apply?
Laura Codruța Kovesi, head of the European Public Prosecutor's Office
“The position of president is stressful, exhausting”
On the other hand, she was confident that EPPO will have a good collaboration with DNA, after Viorel Cerbu, with whom she worked before, was appointed as the head of the anti-corruption prosecutor's office.
Asked to comment on a recent statement by Nicușor Dan, who said he was “inclined to believe” that there were abuses during the time DNA was headed by Kovesi, the current head of the EPPO believes that this statement affects the institution she led as a whole.
“The fact that you got a good score at international math Olympiads does not qualify you to make other statements. And certainly the position of president of Romania is a difficult, stressful, tiring position. I wish the president a lot of sleep, a good sleep. The country needs him to come back in good shape,” commented Kovesi.
Regarding the speculations related to her entering politics or being appointed to a high position in the Romanian state, Kovesi said that she has no intention of getting involved in the political area and that she has no contacts in this environment.
“I don't have any plan to enter politics, I don't want to create any kind of political party. I don't want to enter into any political alliance with anyone, I really haven't followed these scenarios and I really don't care, and I really think it's a smokescreen,” said the prosecutor.
What does Kovesi want to do after the end of his mandate at EPPO
She said his name is invoked as the “Kovesi ghost” that some politicians use to get opponents to accept things they would otherwise disagree with. Instead, Kovesi said he would like to do trainings with young prosecutors and judges.
“If someone needs my experience in Romania, I'm ready to help and I don't even want to be employed and I can do it voluntarily, without asking for money. Anyone who needs my professional experience, I'm ready to give it, I'm ready to talk to anyone, regardless of whether they want to talk about the prosecutor's office, about changing the laws, about how the justice system needs to be improved,” said Laura Codruța Kovesi.
Although she avoided evaluating the DNA's activity after leaving the institution, she said that the decrease in the number of instrumented files does not show that the level of corruption in Romania has been considerably reduced.
“I hear this all the time. There was Kovesi, he was making files, everyone thought that Romania was corrupt. Now, if there are no more files, probably everyone thinks that Romania is a clean country. We all know that it is not. We all know that there are problems”, believes the head of the DNA, who gave an example of VAT fraud, which caused the non-collection of tax in Romania to be at a very high level.
“Interesting” notifications from ANAF
“Still, it's a bit of good news, because in the first 3 years of activity at EPPO, we didn't receive any notifications from ANAF on VAT fraud. This year, we even received some interesting notifications. So, somehow, something has changed in this whole mechanism, so maybe things will go for the better in the future”, stated Kovesi.
According to her, the incorrect allocation of European money through public procurement procedures is a problem in other states as well, and the EPPO frequently faces situations where projects with European funds are moved to national funds just to block the investigations of European prosecutors.
“When they see that the EPPO has opened an investigation, they move the project to national funds and at that moment you can't do anything. Then only a national prosecutor's office can investigate. It doesn't just happen in Romania, it happens in other member states too. So they always try, those who want to steal the money, try to find the optimal method to avoid being detected, or if they are detected, to not be able to be investigated”, Kovesi concluded.
The full interview can be read on Context.ro.
