EU Member States have made progress in combatting corruption in the private sector since the last reports published in 2007 and 2011 and have stepped up their efforts to amend national legislation and harmonise sanctions, the European Commission said on 26 July in a new progress report.
The aim was to see how Member States comply with the EU Council Framework Decision of 22 July 2003 on combating corruption in the private sector, for example, on efforts to criminalise various aspects of active and passive corruption, to criminalise the encouragement of corruption and to implement criminal sanctions.
According to the report, major reforms have been carried out in the 28 Member States, such as Greece, which amended its criminal provisions in 2014, followed by Bulgaria, Germany, Spain and Estonia in 2015, as well as Belgium and Italy in 2016 and 2018. The level of minimum penalties introduced has also been harmonised in most Member States.
However, not all of them are at the same level. In some countries, accepting a promise of a bribe is not covered by legislation, nor is giving an undue advantage to a third party. The report also notes that very few convictions for corruption in the private sector were handed down over the period studied between 2016 and 2018.
Link to the report: https://bit.ly/2K5b63R (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)