“The law is equal to everyone,” Laura Codruta Kövesi has been in the light of years. And because we are full of words, the first one accompanies them with tangible results.
Laura Kovesi is at the heart of the biggest European fraud case in Greece, personally undertaking the research on his subsidies.
The case, according to the case file, relates to a multi -year practice of virtual distribution of agricultural land that allegedly brought millions of euros to government officials and individuals through Community resources. Prosecutor Popi Papandreou forwarded to the European Public Prosecutor.
“Public opinion should not be disoriented by the essential question: Was there an organized fraud and corruption?” Laura Kovesi stresses, making – more than clear – that she will not allow for any reason to divert the research.
Laura Kovesi, “The Brave and Distinguished Candidate for Position”
When her name was heard about the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, there were many who described her as “the braver and distinguished candidate for the post”.
The Romanian judicial officer became known as the head of the respectable Romanian anti -corruption service, DNA. He chased government ministers and mayors and quickly became the favorite of the European Parliament and anti -corruption activists.
Kovesi was popular with many governments – but not in her own, who vowed to do everything to prevent her successful campaign from becoming Europe’s first prosecutor.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru
Eighteen months later, the Romanian government had fallen and Copyi was “inaugurating” the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), the first body of the European Union to handle criminal investigations.
“The criterion of our success will be the confidence of the citizens in our institution,” she said at the time, and as expected her words were followed by actions.
“We build this office from scratch, so a lot of work has to be done to put our administrative, fiscal and legislative guidelines in order. There is no precedent for such an office, as we have to harmonize the prosecutors’ work of 22 different Member States.
They work in different courts with different procedural rules and we need to find common ground.
The second challenge, once we work, is to be effective, to act independently and to gain the confidence of the citizens – which we can only win if we are effective in our efforts and if we prove that the law applies equally to everyone. Only then will people send us their complaints and advice.
In Romania, most of the cases we opened were based on information given to us by the public. Only within one year, complaints from individuals increased by more than 60%.
This is a good indication that people trust you, and if they trust you, they will trust you and fight for you. What we do is not for us, it is for the benefit of the citizens. This is justice, “he said in an interview with Rahim Kanani in 2020 about the International Monetary Fund.
‘There is no pure country’
In the first four months of its term of office, the European Public Prosecutor’s team managed more than 2,000 crimes reports and conducted 350 investigations involving the giant amount of € 4.6 billion from the EU budget.
“There is no clean country,” Covesie told Euronews. “We have criminals in eastern and western Europe. We have organized crime everywhere in Europe. My role is to ensure that the law is equal to everyone. “
Photo Credits: Feeding Photos / Octav Ganea Via Reuters / File Photo
Laura Kovesi has a decoration in her biography that she became the youngest and first female general prosecutor of Romania, was the head of the National Directorate of Corruption from 2013 to 2018 and is the first prosecutor against corruption.
From Carpathians to Luxembourg
Born in 1973 in Transylvania’s Sfantiou Georga, Kovesi studied law and completed a doctoral dissertation on the fight against organized crime. In 2006 she became the first woman – and younger in the history of Romania – to take over the position of Attorney General.
Since 2013, he led the National Division of Corruption (DNA), leading to justice dozens of officials, MPs and even a former prime minister. 2018 was dismissed by a political decision, which was deemed to be a violation of its fundamental rights by the European Court of Human Rights in 2020.
In 2019 he was elected by the European Parliament as the first head of the newly established European Public Prosecutor’s Office, despite the reactions of the Romanian government.
In 2018, the government of the Romanian Social-Democratic Party created the “Department of Judicial Investigations” to investigate prosecutors. This was criticized by the Venice Committee, which believed that they could undermine the independence of the Romanian prosecutors and judges and the public’s confidence in justice.
However, the government went forward and, on February 13, 2019, Laura Kovesi was called by this institution as a suspect in a case in which the allegations were: mistreatment, bribery and false testimony, following a complaint by Sebastian Gita.
Photo Credits: EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT
On March 7, 2019, Kovesi was summoned and questioned by the Prosecutors of the Department of Court of Justice. In the end it was notified that he was suspicious of a second, different investigation, with regard to the coordination of an “organized group of prosecutors” that persecutes people illegally.
The Department of Disciplinary Prosecutors of the Supreme Court of Appeal and Justice of Romania issued a statement on June 24, 2019 on one of the actions aimed at Laura Kovesi. Romania’s Supreme Court of Appeal found her innocent.
Basketball, Law and “The Prosecutor’s Office are not for women”
Laura Kovesi was 15 years old when communism was overthrown in 1989. She was playing basketball for her country at the European Youth Championship in August 1989 in Timisoara, the city where the birthplace of the Romanian Revolution a few months later. At least 100 protesters were killed in a violent repression in the city, including many young people.
He later said: “How many of these people who were in our struggles and supported us were injured or killed in the revolution? They fought for democracy and some of them did not survive. “
He entered Law in 1991, shortly after the abolition of the compulsory Marxist-Leninist curriculum and the recasting of Romania’s laws. Kovesi, whose father was a prosecutor, chose to specialize in criminal law. It wasn’t easy.
Photo Credits: EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT
“The first thing I heard, when I said that I wanted to become a prosecutor, was that the prosecutor’s office is not for women. I had to work harder than men, just to prove that a prosecutor’s office can be just as good as a man’s office. “
At 33, she was Romania’s newest general prosecutor. In 2013, he became head of DNA. In a poll, 60% said they trust DNA, while only 11% trust parliament.
Became the target
Her work has made her a target of espionage, cyber -media and attacks in the media. “It was not easy, especially for my family, but when you choose to work as a prosecutor you have to take on all the dangers of this position,” she said.
After more than five years in DNA, where he overseeed the prosecution of a former prime minister, he was fired on the order of the Minister of Justice in July 2018. It was a year of mass protests on the streets and warnings that the government had abolished democratic controls and balances.
“What is the most important lesson you take from your Romanian experience for your new role?” Kanani said five years.
“My experience with the National Romanian Corruption Directorate proves that no one is above the law and that the law can be applied equally to everyone, regardless of their position in society.
We have not only been aware of the seriousness of corruption and how it affects people’s lives, but also to show that Romanian institutions can work effectively and legally to combat it. This is not an unsolved problem, “he replied.
Before OPEKEPE were the Tempi
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has called for the complete clarification of the Tempe case. Laura Kovesi, in response to Kostas Arvanitis in March 2025, head of the SYRIZA Eurogroup, said:
“As for Tempi in Greece, I wanted to inform you again that in December 2023, we were charged with 23 suspects, including 18 civil servants for crimes on the execution of contracts for the restoration of a remote control system and a signaling system.
Our research started before the accident, so I have to be very clear, we are not investigating the accident itself, we are considering how the EU resources have been spent.
In one case we have seen a possible involvement of some Members, but according to the Greek Constitution, which we are obliged to respect, we had to refer to the Greek Parliament the part of the case involving possible criminal responsibility of members of the Greek government.
Photo Credits: AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
We have informed the European Commission on this issue because it is a violation of European legislation. Such laws influence the exercise of Eppo’s responsibilities.
To the question of why we did not request hearings. If no one lifts immunity we can do nothing. If the lifting of immunity is rejected in a case, we can do nothing.
In what capacity can I ask someone to come as a witness or accused if his or her immunity has not been lifted. We can’t do it. Again, we could not seek to remove immunity because we do not have this responsibility.
We received letters from the lawyers, we appreciated them and that was the answer. But I assure you that we are dealing with this case with the necessary seriousness. Of course we also had information about the movement of this liquid. We are investigating it and will consider what we have. “
He also searched Ursula von der Laienne
Its action is not limited to Greece. It is conducting multinational surveys of VAT fraud totaling € 1.3 billion, with even Camorra involvement. At the same time, it has opened a front with the European Commission, denouncing underfunding of the service at a time when cases are increasing – only for the recovery fund, the files in 2023 reached 200.
Tension was also caused by Copy’s demand for transparency in the SMS case between Ursula von der Laien and Pfizer’s CEO during the vaccine negotiations.
Laura Kovesi has evolved into an emblematic form of European justice, summarizing her attitude to a phrase: “There are no two different worlds of crime. Road mobsters and economic crime representatives are the two sides of the same coin. “
With information from The Guardian, International Monetary Fund, Euronews, Politico
