On Tuesday, Parliament and Council reached a trilogue agreement on the first EU directive to combat corruption. For the first time, there will be EU-wide binding minimum definitions for nine criminal offences – including bribery, embezzlement, and unlawful influence.

What does this mean?
The European Commission and the European Court of Justice will now be able to review whether Member States are actually complying with these rules. Member States can no longer fall below the adopted minimum standards. Italy’s Prime Minister Meloni, for example, abolished abuse of office as an offence last year. That would no longer be possible under the new legislation.

What did Parliament achieve?
Parliament succeeded in adding certain preventive measures to the Commission’s draft, such as asset declarations by public office holders. National anti-corruption strategies will also become mandatory. Despite resistance from the Council, abuse of office was made a mandatory criminal offence. The Meloni government in Italy in particular blocked an agreement for a long time, unfortunately with support from Chancellor Merz and the federal government in Berlin.

Daniel Freund, Green negotiator on the Anti-Corruption Directive:

“Europe is, for the first time, setting common standards in the fight against corruption. At last, there is a clear definition of what counts as corruption, and each offence carries a minimum penalty. This prevents countries like Italy or Hungary from simply decriminalising certain acts. No EU country can now drop below a minimum level. This is real progress.

But I would have hoped for more. In the end, they agreed on the lowest common denominator. Instead of raising standards across Europe, the Member States dug in their heels. They didn’t even want to disclose how many corruption cases there are in their own countries. As a result, the chance to get a clear picture of the actual situation in Europe was missed. The fact that the German government stood side by side with Meloni’s administration to block a more determined fight against corruption is scandalous.”