The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has formally reprimanded its Bulgarian representative, Teodora Georgieva, bringing to an end the first disciplinary proceedings against a European Prosecutor since the EU body began operations in June 2021.
The decision, announced on July 15, was adopted by the EPPO College, acting as the appointing authority under the EU Staff Regulations. It follows an internal disciplinary procedure in which Georgieva was found guilty of three counts of serious misconduct identified during an administrative inquiry.
The sanction imposed is a formal reprimand, the second-mildest penalty available under the Staff Regulations, ranking above only a written warning. The College settled on it after the EPPO explored the possibility of seeking her dismissal.
On February 25, the College found Georgieva guilty of misconduct but postponed deciding on the appropriate penalty while consulting the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission on whether they wished to ask the Court of Justice of the European Union to remove her from office.
Under the EPPO Regulation, only the EU’s top court can dismiss a European Prosecutor before the end of their mandate. None of the institutions requested her removal.
According to the EPPO, the reprimand follows a unanimous reasoned opinion issued on January 5 by its independent Disciplinary Board, which concluded that Georgieva had committed the disciplinary offences identified by the administrative inquiry and recommended the lesser sanction.
The EPPO has not disclosed the precise nature of the misconduct, citing confidentiality rules governing disciplinary proceedings.
Bulgarian media have speculated about what the breaches involved, with most attention going to the Chiren gas storage investigation.
Georgieva was leading the EPPO investigation into alleged corruption surrounding the expansion of Bulgaria’s Chiren gas storage facility, which involved around €78 million in EU funding. The grant was agreed in January 2022 under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), and Chiren was the only natural gas project the European Commission selected for that fund in the round. EPPO investigators searched offices of state-owned operator Bulgartransgaz in August 2024 over suspected procurement fraud, and the Bulgarian Government froze the expansion the following day.
On March 6, 2026, Georgieva told Bulgaria’s caretaker justice minister she had been subjected to pressure from senior prosecutors and a prominent political figure sanctioned for corruption by the US and the UK, while publicly questioning why the EPPO had not specified the alleged breaches.
That report reached the justice ministry almost a year after her suspension and nine days after the College had already found her guilty.
The controversy comes against the backdrop of long-running concerns over Bulgaria’s anti-corruption efforts.
Georgieva was suspended by European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi in March 2025, an unprecedented step in the EPPO’s short history, pending the outcome of the investigation. Her remuneration was withheld and Dimitar Belichev, who heads the office of European Delegated Prosecutors in Bulgaria, was appointed as her deputy. The disciplinary proceedings were formally launched on September 25, 2025.
The EPPO, headquartered in Luxembourg and led by Kövesi, is responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes affecting the EU’s financial interests, including fraud involving EU funds, corruption and cross-border VAT fraud. By the end of 2025 it had 3,602 active investigations covering an estimated €67.2 billion in damage to EU and national budgets, according to the Council of the European Union.
The Council appoints one European Prosecutor for each participating member state, for a non-renewable six-year term. Each sits on the College, which supervises investigations carried out by European Delegated Prosecutors in their respective countries. Twenty-four of the 27 member states take part. Denmark and Ireland hold opt-outs, while Hungary notified its request to join in May 2026.
