European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy Johannes Hahn inaugurated an anti-corruption initiative when he was in Ukraine on Thursday 1 June.
The initiative was launched in cooperation with Denmark and aims to strengthen the capacity of newly created institutions in the fight against corruption, and to strengthen the external monitoring of the reform process. The initiative will last for three years and is supported by the European Commission for a maximum of €15 million and by the Danish Ministry for Foreign Affairs for €1.34 million.
Hahn told press that the fight against corruption was high on the EU's agenda. "Thus far, this is the most ambitious EU anti-corruption aid programme", he said. Hahn also spoke of his concerns about the politicisation of the appointment of members of the external control committee, which will make an independent assessment of the effectiveness of Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU). "NABU contributes to Ukraine's achievement in the fight against corruption, but the EU fears that the issue of its independence and effectiveness is not often raised", Hahn said.
He also called on Ukraine's national agency for the prevention of corruption to begin providing results "immediately" on its mandate – in other words, the effective and objective checking of online tax declarations and the identification of possible conflicts of interest among its officials. Hahn also said that special courts need to be created for cases of corruption, and he added that he thought cases were currently handled slowly in the traditional courts. He also said that the EU's new initiative could provide the necessary support for the creation of these courts.
Hahn underlined his concern at the fact that online tax declarations have been extended to members of NGOs and non-resident boards of directors, saying that this was a mistake. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)