Brussels, 17/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - In a statement adopted at a ministerial meeting in Paris chaired by Italy's Justice Minister Andrea Orlando on Wednesday 16 March, the 41 state parties (including 24 EU member states) to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention reaffirmed their “commitment” to continued implementation of the convention and called for “robust” enforcement of their respective anti-foreign bribery laws. They also launched the fourth phase of country evaluations by the OECD working group on bribery.
In their ministerial statement (available at: http://goo.gl.bJoJx ), these countries underline the need to enhance enforcement of their laws implementing the foreign bribery offence against legal persons, including state-owned or controlled enterprises. They advocate greater efforts to fight foreign bribery and recognise the importance of appealing to non-parties to the convention that are major exporters and foreign investors to accede to and implement the Anti-Bribery Convention, and to support ongoing consultations to promote wider participation in the convention.
In their statement, the 41 state parties to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, along with nine other countries, reaffirmed their commitment to fighting foreign bribery and corruption in all its forms in international transactions. They also affirmed their commitment to providing effective international cooperation in cases of foreign bribery and corruption.
The 50 countries committed to staying on top of new challenges in fighting bribery and corruption, and to improving international cooperation, promoting better whistleblower protection, strengthening public-private-civil society partnerships against corruption, and to enriching the dialogue on voluntary disclosure and settlement procedures in corruption cases.
The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention establishes legally binding standards to criminalise bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions, and provides for measures that make this effective. It is the first and only international anti-corruption instrument focused on the supply side of the bribery transaction, the OECD states in a press release. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)