Corruption fighter tipped as Europe's first prosecutor

[NANO]

The European Union has never had a chief prosecutor, and now the front-runner to become the first is a woman who has built a fearsome reputation at home.

Until last year Laura Codruta Kovesi, 45, was head of Romania's powerful Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA). She is up against an attorney general from France, Jean-François Bohnert – and facing fierce opposition from her own government. As head of the new European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), whoever wins will have extensive powers to investigate and prosecute the misuse of EU funds and VAT fraud between EU member states. How Kovesi became her government's deadly enemy A talented basketball player in her youth, Laura Kovesi became a general prosecutor at just 36. By 2013 she was head of the DNA – and built up quite a track record. During her five years in the job she put 68 high-level functionaries on trial, including 14 government ministers or ex-ministers and 53 deputies from both houses of the Romanian parliament. By the time she was forced out of the job by the governing Social Democrats, 37 of those politicians had already been convicted, and most of the other cases were still ongoing.