§ Mr. SawfordTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had on corpus juris; and if he will make a statement. [79951]
§ Kate HoeyI have been asked to reply.
The research study entitled "Corpus Juris", published in 1997 under the aegis of the European Commission, contains proposals for common penal rules and procedures to protect the financial interests of the European Community, including the creation of an office of European Public Prosecutor.
The House of Lords European Communities Committee has recently conducted an inquiry into the Corpus Juris report. The Government provided both written and oral evidence to the inquiry and are awaiting the Committee's findings.
Although the Government fully share the objective of fighting fraud against the Community budget, we disagree with many of the recommendations of the "Corpus Juris" study. None of the recommendations have been submitted to the Council of Ministers, but if this were to happen, unanimous agreement would be needed for them to be adopted and come into effect. The Government's agreement to the majority of the proposals in their present form is highly unlikely.