The Justice and Home Affairs Council today adopted a position on combating corruption that weakens the directive proposed by the Commission and is far below Parliament’s ambition. Parliament had adopted its position on 31.01.2024 in Committee after the Commission had proposed on 03.05.2023 to harmonise criminal offences on corruption, make preventive measures binding and prescribe heavier minimum penalties and longer limitation periods to make the fight against corruption easier and more effective. Instead of this, now, Council

• reduces the scope regarding criminal offences by deleting criminalisation of “abuse of function” as mandatory
• does not include a criminal offence on “illicit party financing” that Parliament had included
• lowers minimum penalties and shortens limitation periods, meaning courts have shorter time to prosecute corruption
• leaves it to discretion of Member States if they use preventive measures such as transparency registers, asset declarations by public officials, access to beneficial owners registers

Parliament’s rapporteur, Ramona Strugariu (Renew), comments:

“Today’s adoption of the Council of the European Union’s general approach to the Directive on combatting corruption was long  awaited for, but sadly it does not mark a crucial moment in advancing the fight against corruption. It is rather a missed opportunity for a truly ambitious EU-wide legislative framework.

The European Parliament has put forward a robust framework, encompassing comprehensive definitions of offences, stricter penalties, and clear limitation periods. We extended the definition of high-level officials, included new  offences in the legislative  proposal and said a big “no” to amnesty and pardons for corruption offences. If we want a corruption-free Europe that tackles the phenomenon at all levels, we need strong, harmonised rules enabling us to fight corruption efficiently. It is also crucial that Member States establish national anti-corruption bodies and clear preventative mechanisms to combat corruption effectively, as proposed in the mandate of the European Parliament. Prevention cannot be a mere afterthought, it lies at the very core of our action to combat this scourge.

As rapporteur of the European Parliament on the Anti-Corruption Directive during the 9th legislature, I am calling on the co-legislators to keep the level of ambition for this Directive in the forthcoming negotiations. The EU must stand as a global model in the fight against corruption. The Council bears a crucial responsibility, along with the Parliament, to shape this model with an unprecedented ambition. It should not, by any means, weaken the fight against corruption, as we see today in its General Approach. I hope that the European Commission will continue to be an ambitious guardian of this objective, as well.”

Greens/EFA negotiator, MEP Daniel Freund, comments:

“Corruption is a serious problem in all EU member states. We have seen multiple times that third countries and corporate interest has been trying to unlawfully influence democratic politics. This has led to police raids not just in the European Parliament but also in national parliaments. It is no secret that there is a very high chance that hostile governments in Russia and China have been behind these potential cases of corruption. To now water down important and necessary measures to fight corruption is simply irresponsible. The European Parliament will stand up for strong anti-corruption measures – adopted with a wide majority in the European Parliament – in the upcoming trilogues. That those negotiations will be held under Hungarian Presidency of the Council will make this task a challenging one.”

Today’s, 14.06.2024, Council press release:

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/06/14/combatting-corruption-council-adopts-position-on-eu-law/

Daniel Freund’s statement of 28.02.2024: https://danielfreund.eu/ep-bribery-of-meps-to-become-an-eu-wide-criminal-offence/?lang=en