L’autonomia dell’ordinamento dell’UE rispetto al diritto nazionale a fronte di nuovi organi e modelli decisionali: il caso della Procura europea

The autonomy of EU law vis-à-vis national law entails that only the former can determine the validity of acts of the institutions, bodies and agencies of the Union, and that the CJEU has exclusive jurisdiction to rule on the validity of such acts. However, the peculiar rules governing the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) seem to partially call into question those corollaries of the principle of autonomy. In particular, while the EPPO is an EU body, the review of the validity of its procedural acts falls, as a rule, within the jurisdiction of national courts; the CJEU’s competence is mostly limited to preliminary rulings or direct actions other than the action for annulment. Even from a substantive viewpoint, EPPO’s procedural acts can be deemed unlawful not only based on EU law, but also on national law, to which the EPPO Regulation makes extensive reference. Against this background, the contribution proposes a systematic analysis of the circumstances in which the aforementioned legal framework conflicts with the principle of autonomy. It concludes by proposing some solutions to each of the specific issues identified, reflecting on the possible uses of the preliminary ruling.