Chief European Public Prosecutor Laura Covesi agreed that the investigation into political figures must be completed quickly, speaking at the Delphi Forum.
More specifically, Ms. Covesi was asked by journalist Pavlos Tsima regarding the Prime Minister’s statement on the need to speed up the procedures regarding investigations into political figures and replied:
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“I have seen the Prime Minister’s statement, I think it is fair. He is right, we need to complete this investigation very quickly because people are waiting for clarification of what happened.”
Covesi: There is no such thing as a clean country
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Elsewhere in her interview, she said there is no such thing as a “clean country.”
“As the head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, five years in the position, knowing exactly what is happening in all 24 states, I say there is no such thing as a clean country. There is corruption everywhere. There is fraud everywhere. The level may be different, there may or may not be systemic issues, but not discovering something, not investigating something, does not make you a clean country. When you clean your house and put the dirt under the carpet, it doesn’t mean your house is clean. So, at least here in Greece, everybody can compare our statistics, they are public… I can’t say that Greece is corrupt, because we have 100 or 50 cases. No, I don’t count that. For me it is important, I will give you an example. This year we have doubled the number of new cases registered for Greece. This is because many citizens sent complaints to us. This is a good sign, they trust what we do.
But what I can tell you is that our colleagues here in Athens are very good. And I admire their courage, their determination, their actions to change this. I hear “this is the way we do things here in Greece.” No, that has to change. And this is very important. I don’t know how many requests for waivers of immunity there are in Greece, there could be hundreds. I don’t know how many MPs or former ministers are being investigated before the European Public Prosecutor’s Office comes to Greece. I do not know. But I can tell you that these prosecutors have the courage to do it, and that is the most important thing. It’s not how much corruption there is, to make comparisons with Romania, France, Germany or other member states. The important thing is when you ‘have a problem’, to do your job. Are you a prosecutor? Do you see corruption? Do your job. Do you see a problem with the law? Change the law. Because if we all do our jobs, of course we believe in a cleaner country where everything will be better and corruption will not be a way of life in any way.”
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