Laura Kovesi: No one in Romania is notifying us about the irregularities in the Port of Constanta, but I promise you that we will get there too

The chief prosecutor of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) Laura Codruta Kovesi criticizes the lack of reaction and cooperation of the Romanian authorities to the requests coming from Luxembourg related to the problems in the Port of Constanta. This at a time when the authorities in other countries are cooperating very well with the European Public Prosecutor's Office, the most recent example being the wide-ranging investigation into customs and VAT fraud in the Greek port of Piraeus, writes Libertatea.ro   The European Public Prosecutor’s Office may help Romania, may reduce VAT fraud, may reduce customs fraud, may help the Romanian people have more money in the budget. This is our duty and this is what we do. But nobody notifies us and nobody wants to work with us, I promise you that  we will work with more difficulty but we will get there, in the Constanta port. I still expect some institutions in Romania wake up and do what needs be done, as it is normal, as we will do our job, even if it is more difficult but we do it anyway’ stated Laura Codruta Kovesi.   The Chief Prosecutor of the European Public Prosecutor's Office criticizes the fact that so far no major case has been opened in relation to the problems in the Port of Constanta: "We have seen that there are files, there are a few small things happening in relation to the Port of Constanta, but that's all. Since the European Public Prosecutor's Office was established in 2019, we have not received any information related to what is happening in the port of Constanta, absolutely none.  We are neither police nor customs. Our role is not to detect, we have to investigate. That is why all other institutions must detect and report to the European Public Prosecutor. This must also be a reflex.  A Romanian prosecutor can start his little file there, just as we started in Greece with Operation Calypso. If we had not been in the European Public Prosecutor's Office, the Greek prosecutor would probably not have gone to that firm, where there were straw men, and nothing would have happened. He would never have seen what was behind it and he would never have got to find out what was going on."