Brussels, 30/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) of the Council of Europe published its annual report on Wednesday 29 June, in which it points to the inadequate means devoted by member states to fighting corruption and to the “occasional slumps in political determination or even backtracking on previous achievements in the fight against corruption”, GRECO states in a press release.
GRECO above all deplores the fact that “the performance of a number of countries, most of them EU member states, had to be qualified as “globally unsatisfactory”, particularly with regard to the methods of incrimination of corruption and the transparency of political funding, the press release stated. These, it explains, are “fields which many countries find difficult to tackle”.
GRECO thus underlined the need to deploy more resources, effort, time and funding to the fight against corruption, both in Europe and globally. It said it was impatient to begin working a little more with the European Commission. On 6 June, the Commission had presented a new strategy against corruption in the EU, providing for the establishment of reports every two years on the extent of the phenomenon in the EU27, and proposing that the Council involve the EU in GRECO work. (S.P./transl.jl)