TI Position

• The EU must do more to counteract corruption. Prevention of and the fight against corruption should be a priority in the EU.
• Corruption occurs in old and new EU Member States alike.
• Adequate EU legislation and mechanisms against corruption are more needed than ever in the EU.
• EU and Member State leaders and decision-makers have to take a clear and public stance against corruption.
• Existing anti-corruption instruments such as the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) must be implemented by the EU and its Member States.
• The special monitoring (‘Cooperation and Verification Mechanism’) in Bulgaria and Romania should be a model for future EU newcomers and the EU in general.

Issues

• Corruption in the EU undermines good governance, the rule of law and fundamental rights.
• Corruption leads to the misallocation or misuse of EU resources, harms the private sector and distorts the EU internal market.
• The push for progress in the fight against corruption considerably slows down as soon as countries become EU Member States.
• More needs to be done to protect people who report irregularities ('whistleblowers').

Press Releases

• 06 June 2011: Transparency International welcomes the EU-wide anti-corruption package. Read more.
• 20 April 2010:TI calls for the establishment of a robust European Public Prosecutor. Read more.
• 15 December 2009:TI welcomes new EU mandate to fight corruption. Read more.
• 12 February 2009: Bulgaria and Romania must produce concrete and irreversible anti-corruption results. Read more.
• 23 July 2008: TI supports freeze of EU funds to Bulgaria, urges accelerated reform in Romania, other EU states. Read more.
• 27 June 2007: Accession is not the end of the line: Bulgaria and Romania need to ratchet up pace of reform, but older member states have deficits to answer for, too. Read more.

Written Contributions for EC Consultations

• December 2010: 'The EU should become more active and vocal in addressing the issue of corruption in EU member states and beyond.' Read more.
• November 2008: ’The EU should do more in the fight against corruption’. Read more.

News

• The European Commission opened public consultations on its anti-corruption package! The European Commission would be interested to receive your feedback on the content of this package and in particular on the idea of a future reporting and monitoring mechanism on EU Member states' progress on fighting corruption. To obtain your input on this planned initiative, the EC invites you to participate in this public consultation, as your opinion is valuable in order to contribute to the Commission's policy in the fight against corruption by encompassing the views of the stakeholders.

Milestones towards stronger EU anti-corruption policy

• On 28 Sept. 2011, the European Commission created a Group of Experts on corruption to support the new EU Anti-Corruption Report. The Head of the Transparency International Liaison Office to the EU, Jana Mittermaier, was appointed to become a member of the Group, which will commence its work in 2012.
• EU adopts Anti-Corruption Package, 6 June 2011. Watch the press statement of Commissioner Malmström here.
• European Parliament Anti-Corruption Declaration: In May 2010, the Anti-Corruption Written declaration on the Union’s efforts to fight corruption” was adopted by more than half of the Members of the European Parliament in Brussels (378). The declaration is an official position of the EP and helps European Parliamentarians launch initiatives on anti-corruption. Transparency International supports the declaration because the declaration underlines the necessity of translating the anti-corruption paragraph in the Stockholm Programme (i.e. The EU 5-year plan on EU justice and home affairs adopted in December 2009) into action.

Events

• 7 December 2011 - International Anti Corruption Conference: Tackling Corruption Across the EU. Conference Delegate Pack, article covering conference in de Volkskrant (in Dutch), in de Morgen
• 11 October 2011 - EU-UNCAC expert roundtable at the European Parliament: invitation, agenda, briefing note, conference kit, poster. Read the UN Convention against Corruption here.
• 9 December 2010 - International Anti-Corruption Day 2010 - TI-EU organised jointly wiht the FLARE Network a public hearing at the Hemicycle of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. Read the programme here.
• 9 December 2009 -INTERNATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION DAY EVENT: Public hearing at the European Parliament with high-level EU and UN panellists on 'Improving Economic Development By Countering Private Sector Corruption'. Invitation, programme and background note.
• International Anti-Corruption Conference 2008 Athens: Workshop with high-level EU panellists on 'Lessons learned from the EU anti-corruption policy'. Download a report here.

Agenda

• 2012: EU Strategy to improve criminal financial investigations in Member States
• June 2012: EC to submit a mid-term report on the implementation of the Stockholm Programme
• Late 2011: Adoption of an Action Plan for how to improve crime statistics.
• Autumn 2011: Proposal for modernised EU rules on confiscation of criminal assets.
• June 2010:Council adopts an Action Plan on the implementation of the Stockholm Programme
• 1 January 2010: Start of the Spanish EU presidency (i.e. the first trio Presidency together with Belgium and Hungary)
• 11 December 2009: Council decides on ‘Stockholm Programme’
• 9 December 2009: International Anti-Corruption Day
• October 2009: Council decides on EU position related to UNCAC (United Nations Convention Against Corruption)
• July - December 2009: Swedish EU presidency
• June 2009: EC political report on Bulgaria and Romania
• February 2009: EC technical monitoring report on Bulgaria and Romania
• December 2008: Council of Ministers of the EU adopts EPAC ('European Partners Against Corruption')
• December 2008: EC ratified UNCAC
• July 2008: EC freezes EU funds for Bulgaria

Research results

The trust of EU citizens in Member States and the EU to fight corruption is very low!

• TI's contribution to EP Publication (2011): Organised Crime and Corruption - Two Sides of the Same Coin
• Anti-Corruption Monitoring Mechanisms in the EU (2008) Overview of the various anti-corruption instruments in the EU and their corresponding monitoring mechanisms. Read here.
• TI's Corruption Perceptions Index 2009. The index also demonstrates that the EU Member States are far from corruption-free and many achievements are still precarious. Sustained anti-corruption efforts are required to improve integrity and accountability and to ensure that both individual states and the European Union live up to the anti-corruption expectations and aspirations of their citizens. Read more.
• TI's Global Corruption Barometer 2009. This GCB presents the main findings of a public opinion survey that explores the general public’s views of corruption in 69 countries, among which 18 EU Member States. Read more.
• TI's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2008. The broad decline of EU Member State’s CPI scores and the high profile scandals in the public as well as private sectors in some EU Member States point to the fact that anti-corruption measures should be made a priority. The CPI results can be interpreted as sign that there is an increasing awareness of the issue of corruption in the EU. Read more.
• Eurobarometer survey 2009 (European Commission) on the attitudes of Europeans towards corruption reveals that European public opinion has become more negative since the last Eurobarometer survey in 2008, with higher level of agreement (78%) that corruption is a major problem in their country. Download here.
• 2008 European Commission's public consultation on the question "Freedom, Security and Justice: What will be the future?". This consultation on priorities for the next five years (2010-2014) shows that the fight against corruption should be a top priority. 88% of the contributors responded to the question if the EU should do more about corruption with “yes”. Read more.
• Eurobarometer survey 2008 (European Commission) on the attitudes of Europeans towards corruption (released on 30 October 2008), reveals that, overall, corruption in the EU Member States is seen as widespread with 3 out of 4 citizens expressing the view that it is a major problem in their country. Download here.
• Eurobarometer survey 2006 (European Commission): EU citizens perceive corruption as being a problem in the EU, according to the EU's Eurobarometer on 'Organised, cross-border crime and corruption' (2006). Download here.

Regional TI Projects

• 2012: ANTICORRP project: Transparency International participates in the largest EU-wide research project on fighting corruption, an interdisciplinary research project that will bring together the expertise of 21 groups of researchers from 16 European countries over five years. ANTICORRP is coordinated by Bo Rothstein from the University of Gothenburg and it was officially launched at the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Conference on "Tackling Corruption across the EU" in Brussels on 7 December 2011. ANTICORRP will take a broad approach to assessing government- and decision-making structures. A pan-EUropean study on the quality of governance and administration on national and regional levels is planned. For the first time European anticorruption legislation will be systematically collected and analysed. Another key issue that will be explored is individual vlaues and motivations to engage against corruption. Success factors in effective fights against corruption will also be distilled through the comparison of case studies from similar historical contexts.
• 2011: The European National Integrity System (ENIS) study currently undertaken in 23 national chapters of Transparency International and partners, see here. For more details on the EU dimension of the ENIS-project, see here.
• 2010: Avenues for TI to Advocate for Whistleblower Protection at EU-Level - Initial EU research. Read more.
• 2009: 'Blowing the whistle harder: Enhancing whistleblower protection in the EU' in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Romania and Slovakia.
• 2009: 'Countdown to impunity: Corruption-related Statutes of Limitation in the EU'. The project will be implemented by TI national chapters/partners in Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Lithuania. Key events in Berlin, Brussels, Budapest and Bucharest, and EU-wide civil society engagegement.
• Ongoing: TI 'Advovacy and Legal Advice Centres'(ALAC) in the EU: Centres empower citizens in the fight against corruption by providing victims with practical assistance to pursue complaints and addres their grievances. The ALACs also offer valuable data collection to help advocate for systemic change in the EU. Read more.

Work of TI national chapters in EU Member States:

• TI Ireland: 2009: National Integrity Study. Read more on the website of TI Ireland.
• TI Germany: 2009: Strengthening of independence in judiciary: Transparency International welcomes recommendation of the Council of Europe for Germany.
• TI Romania: 2008 Project: Monitoring of EU structural funds in Romania. Read more on the website of TI Romania.
• TI Bulgaria: 2007: "Anti-Corruption measures as political criteria for EU accession: Lessons from the Bulgaria experience". Download here.
• TI Romania: 2007: Romanian National Corruption Report; covering the period from May 2007 to May 2008. Download here.
• TI Bulgaria: 2005-2006: Civil Control over the work of Court Experts in Bulgaria: “Court Experts in Bulgaria - Ethical Standards and Mechanisms for Control over their Activity”. Download here.
• TI France: Working Group on judiciary resources/means in the fight against corruption. Read more on the website of TI France.
• TI Hungary: Training for judges on corruption risks in Hungary. Read more on the website of TI Hungary.