Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 8 December 2020 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Landesgericht für Strafsachen Wien – Austria) – Criminal proceedings against A and Others

(Case C-584/19) ¹

(Reference for a preliminary ruling – Judicial cooperation in criminal matters – European investigation order – Directive 2014/41/EU – Article 1(1) – Article 2(c)(i) and (ii) – Concepts of ‘judicial authority’ and ‘issuing authority’ – European investigation order issued by the public prosecutor’s office of a Member State – Independence from the executive)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Landesgericht für Strafsachen Wien

Party to the main criminal proceedings

A and Others

Other party: Staatsanwaltschaft Wien

Operative part of the judgment

Article 1(1) and Article 2(c) of Directive 2014/41/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 regarding the European Investigation Order in criminal matters must be interpreted as meaning that the concepts of ‘judicial authority’ and ‘issuing authority’, within the meaning of those provisions, include the public prosecutor of a Member State or, more generally, the public prosecutor’s office of a Member State, regardless of any relationship of legal subordination that might exist between that public prosecutor or public prosecutor’s office and the executive of that Member State and of the exposure of that public prosecutor or public prosecutor’s office to the risk of being directly or indirectly subject to orders or individual instructions from the executive when adopting a European investigation order.

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¹ OJ C 383, 11.11.2019.