Giovanni Kessler

Kessler at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly

Giovanni Kessler (Trento, June 11, 1956) is an Italian prosecutor. He is currently the Director-General of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). OLAF is a department of the European Commission, but it is independent in its investigative function. Based in Brussels, OLAF is tasked with protecting the financial interests of the European Union by investigating fraud, corruption and any other illegal activities. It also investigates serious matters relating to the discharge of professional duties by members and staff of the EU institutions and it supports the EU institutions, in particular the European Commission, in the development and implementation of anti-fraud legislation and policies.

Biography

Giovanni Kessler is the son of Bruno Kessler (1924–1991), a former President of the Autonomous Province of Trento and vice-minister to the Interior.

Giovanni Kessler graduated in law at the University of Bologna.

In 1985 he became a member of the Italian judiciary and served as prosecutor in the courts of Trento and then of Bolzano. From 1995 he worked for two years as anti-mafia prosecutor in Caltanissetta (Sicily) at the anti-mafia Directorate.^[1]

From 1998 to 1999, he was Deputy Head of the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission in Pristina, in charge of Police and Justice matters. As judicial expert, he also participated to several evaluation missions of the European Commission and Council of Europe in Eastern Europe.

In 2001, he was elected to the Italian Parliament as independent member. He sat on the Justice Affairs Committee and during his five-year term, he authored numerous bills on the International Criminal Court, the European Convention against corruption, the International Judiciary Cooperation and the European Arrest Warrant. From 2003-2006, he also became Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

From 2006 to 2008 he held the position of Italian High Commissioner to Combat Counterfeiting.

In December 2008 he was elected member, and subsequently President, of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Trento.^[2] He resigned from this position before taking up the post of Director-General of OLAF in early 2011.

In 2009 he started with Dieter Steger (SVP) and Herwig van Staa (ÖVP), chairmen of the legislative assemblies of South Tyrol and Tyrol, the project of a Euroregion that, for the three territories, would represent a recovery of historical Tyrol. The legislative assemblies of the autonomous provinces of Trentino and South Tyrol and Tyrol then unanimously approved the Euroregion Tyrol – South Tyrol – Trentino.^[3]

Since February 2011 when he became Director-General of OLAF, the Anti-Fraud office of the European Union,^[4] he engaged in a comprehensive reform process to strengthen the efficiency of OLAF, aiming to step-up the fight against fraud and corruption in Europe.

In 2012, he was elected President of the European Partners Against Corruption / European Anti-Corruption Network (EPAC/EACN), a formal network comprising close to fifty anti-corruption authorities from European Union Member States. The Network was set up to improve cooperation between authorities mandated with the fight against corruption in the European Union, as well as to foster closer relations between Member States and the European institutions.

In 2013, he also became a Member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA). IAACA has more than three hundred organizational members which cover nearly all law enforcement national institutions and bodies entrusted with the task of fighting against corruption and more than two thousand individual members, including prosecutors, investigators and experts with experience in anti-corruption research or practice.

In 2014 Kessler became a member of the commission on appointment of the new bureau chief of the Ukrainian anti-Corruption Bureau.^[5]

Notes

External links

• "Giovanni Kessler". Personal Website. Retrieved 2008-12-01. 
• Hector Paris (February 25, 2006). "The report cards to our MPs". Questotrentino. Retrieved 2007-12-24. 
• "Giovanni Kessler". PAT Council. Retrieved 2008-12-03.