Brussels – It’s official: Hungary will join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). The EPPO will also have an office in Budapest to protect European Union funds from financial crime. The European Commission today (10 July) adopted a decision confirming Budapest’s participation in the Public Prosecutor’s Office following the request submitted in May 2026 by the government of the newly elected Peter Magyar. The country has become the 25th Member State to join the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which, according to the EU executive, demonstrates its “renewed commitment to restoring the rule of law in the country.” For the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, “the Hungarian people will now have a safeguard to ensure that EU funds work in their best interests.” She added: “Hungary, welcome to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.”
Hungary will now have to put forward three candidates for the post of European Public Prosecutor. The appointee will be appointed by the Council of the EU after it has considered the opinion of an independent panel. Budapest will also have to put forward candidates for the post of European Prosecutor delegated to the European Chief Prosecutor and, in particular, will have to take the necessary measures to ensure that the EPPO can be fully operational in Hungary.
“We must, of course, ensure that Hungary has sufficient material and human resources to enable the EPPO to operate fully on Hungarian territory,” and to this end, “it may be necessary to bring national legislation into line with the EPPO’s regulations,” explained Guillaume Mercier, the spokesperson, during the European Commission’s daily press briefing. These are “steps that need to be completed before the system is fully operational,” he clarified. The EPPO will become operational twenty days after the Council appoints the European Public Prosecutor in Hungary and will be “competent to investigate and prosecute offences involving EU funds committed in Hungary after 1 June 2021, with retroactive effect from the date the EPPO commenced operations,” the Berlaymont building emphasised.
Furthermore, with today’s decision, “the EPPO Regulation will cease to be an act under enhanced cooperation and will become a fully-fledged part of the Union’s acquis,” the Commission explained. This is because the EPPO was established through the mechanism of so-called enhanced cooperation, which allows a group of at least nine Member States to integrate more closely through a Union policy. However, when all Member States participate in a legal act established through this mechanism, that act becomes part of the acquis communautaire—the body of laws, rights and obligations shared by all European Union countries—and is no longer considered to operate within the framework of enhanced cooperation. With 25 Member States having acceded to the EU, and two, Denmark and Ireland, subject to the opt-out clause, the EPPO Regulation will become part of EU law. This means that any new member joining the European Union in the future will have to join the EPPO.
Established in 2021 by the EPPO Regulation, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has handled over 3,600 cases during its existence to date, which will continue until the end of December 2025. “From now on, Hungarians know that there will be an independent European Public Prosecutor who will ensure that EU funds go where they are meant to go,” remarked the Executive Vice-President responsible for Technological Sovereignty, Henna Virkunnen. She was joined by the European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, Michael McGrath, who described today as a “historic” day for both Hungary and the EU. “Protecting our budget is not optional,” he concluded.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
