EU & anti-corruption

EU level engagement with countries on anti-corruption issues – whether with Member States, countries that are candidates for membership, or the rest of the world – has frequently focused on institutional and legislative reforms, such as passing anti-bribery legislation or establishing anti-corruption agencies. There remains a significant ‘implementation gap’ between anti-corruption rules and actual practice, often due to the inability or unwillingness to make use of the available enforcement mechanisms. However, the EU and the European Commission in particular has not fully recognised the role that civil society can have in changing norms and achieving better implementation and enforcement. The EU needs to focus on faciliating anti-corruption efforts of governments in Member States and non-EU countries and on creating a space for meaningful engagement with civil society. 

  • The rule of law
  • Sustainable Development
  • Whistleblowing
  • Forest governance
  • EU Spending
  • Enlargement

About The rule of law

In recent years, the EU has experienced an escalating rule of law crisis where the values of democracy and political integrity have been seriously undermined in several Member States. Attacks to the rule of law have emerged in the form of high-level corruption and the abuse of power, including worrying attempts to weaken plural and independent media.

The Rule of Law is one of the values on which the EU is founded (Article 2 TEU) and it is essential for fundamental rights and civil liberties to exist. Therefore, when the rule of law is threatened, independent and impartial courts, open and transparent decision-making, accountability laws and mutual trust in the internal market are put in danger.

To prevent these attacks from becoming systemic and expanding to other countries, the EU institutions need to act accordingly to the treaties and protect their citizens and our democratic systems from undue abuses of power.

Making EU spending conditional to the respect of the rule of law is something Transparency International EU (TI EU) has been calling for many years. In the last decade, the EU has seen a rise of corrupt practices involving the use of EU money to finance anti-democratic activities. This is a threat to our values, and therefore, should be a red line for all EU institutions.

Related Projects

The rule of law

In recent years, the EU has experienced an escalating rule of law crisis where the values of democracy and political integrity have been seriously undermined in several Member States. Attacks to the rule of law have emerged in the form of high-level...

Recent News

About Sustainable Development

Together, the European Union and its Member States are the world’s largest aid donor providing over half of all global development aid. Development policy at the EU level is currently being revised in light of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Abuses of power and financial, natural and other resources continues to have serious negative impacts on development, aggravating poverty, conflicts and political, social and economic instabilities. Every year an estimated $1 trillion of illicit financial flows leave developing countries in the form of tax evasion, embezzlement, bribes, money laundering and smuggling. These illicit financial flows are now rising twice as fast as global GDP, depriving countries and their people of resources that could be put towards achieving trans-formative sustainable development gains.

We want to ensure that EU development aid addresses and is subject to anti-corruption efforts. The EU needs to develop an overarching EU Sustainable Development Strategy that includes both internal and external action, including a plan of implementation, with concrete targets and timelines. This strategy should coordinate the EU’s overall achievement of the 2030 Agenda, each of the 17 SDGs, 169 targets and the use of agreed indicators, to help the EU and its member states focus clearly on what needs to be achieved, and how. The EU also needs to develop strong monitoring, review and accountability mechanisms and consider citizen-generated data to help track progress towards the achievement of the Goals.

 

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Anti-Corruption Advocacy for Sustainable Development

Fighting corruption for a sustainable future

EU Forest Governance

What is the problem? REDD+ is a UN-initiated scheme aimed at shifting the forest economy from short-term profit to long-term security by offering financial incentives to forest-rich countries to hold onto their woodland. It refers to “reducing...

Recent News

Article

SDGs progress report: A partial truth

On November 20th Eurostat, the statistical office for the European Commission, released their first progress report on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The report looked at 100 targets, out of 169, and included Transparency...

About Whistleblowing

A key challenge in preventing and fighting corruption is to detect and expose bribery, fraud, theft of public funds and other acts of wrongdoing. One of the most direct methods of shining the light on corruption is whistleblowing. Unfortunately, whistleblowers commonly face retaliation in the form of harassment, firing, blacklisting, threats and even physical violence, and their disclosures are routinely ignored.

We work to ensure that the EU institutions are fulfilling their legal obligations to provide comprehensive and robust protections for EU staff whistleblowers. We are also currently advocating for the Commission to come forward for a proposal for an EU directive on whistleblower protection.

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Whistleblowing

Whistleblowers like Antoine Deltour, Zuzana Hlávková  and Andrea Franzoso have all faced great personal and professional ramifications by exposing corruption and wrong doing in the public interest. Whistleblower protection legislation remains...

Recent News

Article

QATARGATE’S FIRST ANNIVERSARY: the more things change…

You can read our full technical analysis of all reforms here. One year ago, Belgian police uncovered 1.5m euros in cash stashed in, among other places, an MEP’s suitcase. What proceeded to unfold was the biggest corruption scandal ever to have hit...

About Forest governance

Corruption can negatively affect climate and contribute to global warming through the pursuit of personal profit over sustainable production. One of the leading causes of global warming is deforestation and forest degradation.

The link between corruption and deforestation has been almost universally recognised. Corruption within and around the forest sector undermines design, implementation and subsequent monitoring of policies aimed at conserving forest cover, while also jeopardising development goals and poverty alleviation in many countries.

The World Bank estimates that up to US$23 billion worth of wood is illegally cut each year, which results in lost revenue of US$10 billion. In some countries, 90% of all logging activities are illegal. As most of these forests are in the developing world, it robs these societies of precious revenue, thwarting development goals and keeping people in poverty. Therefore, besides deforestation, illegal logging undermines the rights of forest-dependent communities and fuels violence and conflict.

Current development aid programmes, aiming to tackle illegal logging and improve forest governance, do not adequately address the corruption challenges. Indeed, they can perpetuate corruption by partnering with corrupt companies, officials and politicians at the root of the problem. Without understanding the role of corruption in the sector and strengthening measures to tackle it, programmes aimed to improve forest governance are unlikely to succeed.

The European Union is a key consumer market for tropical timber coming from countries with high levels of corruption in fragile and/or conflict affected countries, and has bilateral agreements in place with many of these timber producing countries. Therefore, the EU is uniquely placed to promote and pursue fundamental reforms to tackle corruption in partnership with these countries.

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Anti-Corruption Advocacy for Sustainable Development

Fighting corruption for a sustainable future

EU Forest Governance

What is the problem? REDD+ is a UN-initiated scheme aimed at shifting the forest economy from short-term profit to long-term security by offering financial incentives to forest-rich countries to hold onto their woodland. It refers to “reducing...

Recent News

Article

Keeping climate finance free from corruption

Last November amid the burgundy red buildings and blues skies of Marrakech countries from all over the globe came together for the annual Conference of Parties (COP) meeting on climate change. One of the agreements to come out of the COP 22 was to...

About EU Spending

The EU oversees an annual budget of approximately € 155 billion in taxpayers’ money. We are working to increase the transparency and accountability of how this money is spent by the both the EU institutions and national authorities to ensure that these funds are not misused.

 

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Integrity Pacts

Through transparency and monitoring Integrity Pacts improve trust and accountability in public procurement.

Eurozone Economic Governance

How transparent are they institutions which govern the Euro?

Open Budgets

Openness and transparency can act as a disincentive to corruption in public spending. The current lack of open budget and expenditure data makes it impossible for citizens to get a comprehensive overview on how EU funds are being spent....

Recent News

Article

ECJ rules against MEP expenses transparency

Today, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the European Parliament is not required to provide access to documents on how MEPs spend their various allowances, which was requested by a consortium of investigative journalists from the...
Article

Parliament squanders chance to reform MEP allowance

Last night the European Parliament’s Bureau voted down proposals to introduce basic financial accountability mechanisms to MEPs’ General Expenditure Allowance (GEA). The GEA is meant for office and representation expenses related to...

About Enlargement

The EU has uniquely close access to the countries in its neighbourhood and, especially, those who are undergoing the accession process. In its development efforts here, the EU must not forget to include anti-corruption measures.

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Anti-Corruption Advocacy for Sustainable Development

Fighting corruption for a sustainable future

National Integrity Systems in the Western Balkans and Turkey

What is the problem? In its Enlargement Strategy for 2013–2014 the European Commission has again highlighted that the rule of law is at the heart of the enlargement process, a key pillar of the Copenhagen political criteria. Continuous efforts...

Recent News

Article

The Western Balkans: Captured states or a community of law?

Yesterday, the European Commission published a new strategy that set out its vision for how the EU will engage with the Western Balkans region in the near-term. This strategy provides a path for the six Western Balkan states to become part of the EU...
Article

Cashback? Bringing stolen assets back to Ukraine

When former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country at the end of the Maidan revolution protestors in 2014, activists and citizens visited his now abandoned Mezhyhirya mansion. What they witnessed was the shear amount of wealth that...