TI Position

• The fight against corruption in any country that wishes to join the EU is a question of the EU's integrity as a whole and the right of its citizens to responsive, reliable and fair public institutions.
• The enlargement process so far has has shown that fighting corruption should be a permanent to priority on the EU's accession agenda.
• Clear standards need to be set out for candidate countries from the beginning, urging them to adopt and implement necessary anti-corruption legislation.
• Accession negotiations are a window of opportunity for the fight against corruption in these countries.
• Progress towards implemented anti-corruption standards needs to be monitored by independent bodies and civil society included in permanent monitoring mechanisms. A transparent pre-accession process based on objective criteria.
• Incentives need to be put into place so that new Member States do not reduce their reform pace after accession.

Issues

• The European Commission has identified anti-corruption refom as a critical yardstick and one of the largest conditions for accession countries to meet.
• TI is an important civil society actor holding governments accountable with TI’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and TI National Chapters in accession countries helping to monitor the anti-corruption progress made.
• Experience shows that once countries have become members of the EU, external pressure is severely reduced and corruption is more likely to reoccur.
• As anti-corruption efforts typically slow down considerably as soon as countries become EU Member States, the post-accession special monitoring (‘Cooperation and Verification Mechanism’) in Bulgaria and Romania is strongly welcomed by TI and should be a model for all future EU newcomers and the EU in general.

Press Releases

• 26 January 2012:Concerns over Romania's National Integrity System
• 19 April 2011: Croatia drags feet in fight against corruption - more reforms needed. Read press release here.
• 6 November 2008: TI welcomes ‘anti-corruption’ emphasis in 2008 EU Enlargement Progress Reports. Read more.

News

• Updated Joint Opinionby Croatian CSOs, including TI Croatia, on the readiness of Croatia to close Chapter 23 (11/05/2011)
• TI Croatia has produced a Joint Opinion together with other Croatian CSOs on the readiness of Croatia to close Chapter 23: Judiciary and Fundamental Rights. (21/2/2011)
• EC Consultation: What funding for EU external action after 2013? (until 31/1/2011) The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the on the future of the financial instruments that the European Union has at its disposal to fulfil its worldwide responsibilities. This includes the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA), which offers assistance to countries engaged in the accession process.

Progress Reports

• 12 October 2011: Enlargement Strategy and Progress Reports 2011. See here.
• 9 November 2010: Enlargement Strategy and Progress Reports 2010. See here.
• 14 October 2009: Enlargement Strategy and Progress Reports 2009. See here.
• 5 November 2008: Enlargement Strategy 2008. See here.

Projects

• Shining a light on political party financing (2010-2011) CRINIS is an assessment tool that evaluates legislative systems and studies the practices of key actors involved in political finance. It aims to identify gaps and shortcomings in political financing systems, with the objective of promoting transparency in political party funding. It is premised on the conviction that transparency is a prerequisite for monitoring money in politics. In the Western Balkans, the assessment carried out in 2010-2011 has focused on the annual, non-electoral funding of political parties in Albania, Croatia, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia and Serbia. Read the report here.
• Measuring anti-corruption requirements (2010-2011) TI has developed the Comparative Indicator-based Monitoring of Anti-corruption Progress initiative (CIMAP), based on EU governance and anti-corruption membership requirements, as well as general good practice standards in the field. The initiative has been designed together with four partner countries – Albania, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia and Turkey – and assessed three national institutions in these countries: the judiciary, legislature and public administration (the civil service). Read the report here.

• Towards an EU-wide anti-corruption monitoring system
  TI chapters in EU accession candidate countries as well as in EU member states monitor the implementation of EU anti-corruption criteria, based on the relevant EU document Acquis Communautaire - click here for more information. They also lobby for their country's compliance with the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). .
• The Accountability Programme in the Western Balkans (September 2002 – January 2006) worked to address deficiencies in governmental accountability and to provide solutions through areas of good governance. For more information see: Accountability Programme rationale and outline. As follow-up to this programme, TI produced an overview on the access to information in several South Eastern European countries.
• Court Watch Survey conducted in Albania (2005)
  This survey about citizens’ perception of corruption in ten Albanian districts revealed that judges and prosecutors came third and fourth in a ranking of the districts' professions perceived to be most corrupted- after customs and tax officials. Citizen Advocacy Office has focussed on corruption in the justice system. Concentrated efforts have been put into identifying the problems and factors that cause vulnerability to corruption in order to, promote legal improvements and radical institutional reforms that are indispensable to eradicate corruption in the judiciary. For more information see TI Albania.

Research

• Research Paper on Anti-Corruption Conditions in the EU Accession Process, by Justin Lyle from the TI-EU Office in Brussels (2010). Download here.

Links

• For a complete overview of corruption and the EU accession process, please see TI’s paper on corruption and the EU accession process (2006). Download here.
• Anti-Corruption measures as political criteria for EU accession: Lessons from the Bulgaria experience (U4 Brief). Download.