Laura Codruța Kövesi issued a farewell message on Friday, 30 October, at the end of her term as European Chief Prosecutor, reflecting on the difficulty of building the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), judicial independence and results over seven years since her appointment, Mediafax reports citing a LinkedIn post.

Kövesi says she leaves with pride, gratitude and confidence and that, despite obstacles, she would make the same choice again. She recalls being chosen to lead the first transnational prosecutor’s office in history amid doubts about whether prosecutors from different countries could work as one team, whether a truly independent European office could be built, and whether a Romanian prosecutor could succeed at EU level.

“Back then I was not smiling. But now I am. Because professionalism has no gender, competence has no age, and integrity has no nationality,” she wrote. She describes EPPO as an institution that changed how financial crime is investigated across the EU: thousands of cases, confrontations with powerful criminal organisations and challenges to long-tolerated practices.

Justice, she says, is not a cost-benefit calculation: the greatest achievement is showing that European integration works, that independence is worth defending and that no one should be above the law. She ties her childhood under communism to those values: “Europe always meant freedom, dignity and the chance of a different future.”

She acknowledges difficult decisions, failures and battles that once seemed unwinnable, and that she did not achieve everything she hoped for — but never gave up and was never alone. She warns that protecting EPPO’s independence is a permanent duty and calls leading the office the honour of her professional life.

Image: Laura Codruța Kövesi (Wikimedia Commons).

Sources consulted: Kövesi farewell message as European Chief Prosecutor - Mediafax.