Meeting in Luxembourg, European justice ministers discussed on Monday 7 October, the EU's action in the fight against corruption and the need for further action. In particular, they supported, by a very large majority, the EU's accession to the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO).
While the EU has already taken a step forward in July 2019 by obtaining observer status in GRECO (see EUROPE 12293/18), Member States believe that further progress is needed. Ministers from 22 countries (Ireland, Slovenia, Romania, Austria, Greece, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Luxembourg, Portugal, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia, Cyprus and Malta) unconditionally supported the possibility of the EU becoming a full member of GRECO.
Sweden and Belgium also supported it, but considered that a detailed assessment by the Commission of the legal consequences of accession should be carried out beforehand.
Finally, the only country that really opposed it was France. French Minister Nicole Belloubet called for "caution", because this accession would imply that the European institutions would be evaluated by peers who are not Member States, she recalled.
The EU Council's Legal Service, for its part, warned of the legal issues raised by this accession in terms of the autonomy of EU law. It reminded Member States of the existence of Article 70 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, according to which the EU Council, on a proposal from the Commission, may adopt measures laying down detailed rules by which Member States shall carry out "an objective and impartial assessment of the implementation by the authorities of the Member States of the Union's policies" in order to promote the full application of the principle of mutual recognition.
A subtle way of reminding Member States that the EU does not necessarily need to join GRECO to have such an evaluation mechanism in place and that there is a legal basis for this in the Treaties.
‘Yes' to a European strategy
In view of the fragmentation of the acquis communautaire in this field and the many existing instruments, the ministers considered that a European strategy or EU action plan to ensure a coordinated and coherent approach to the prevention and fight against corruption in the EU would be a good option. Several countries, including Romania, Poland and Hungary, stressed the need for such a strategy to cover not only the Member States, but also the European institutions.
While Ireland, Sweden, Slovenia, Portugal, Latvia, Poland, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Italy and Cyprus openly supported the development of a strategy, others were more reluctant. This was the case of the German minister Christine Lambrecht, who said she was "not yet fully convinced" and who felt that it was first necessary to ensure the proper implementation of existing instruments.
The same was true for the Czech Republic and Estonia, which were rather doubtful, while France considered that any strategy would require work to identify existing instruments to see where there would be real added value.
‘No' to a new evaluation mechanism
On the other hand, Member States have been much less enthusiastic about the idea of creating a new EU-wide evaluation mechanism. Overall, they considered that they were already being monitored at an international level by GRECO, the OECD or the United Nations Convention against Corruption and that this new mechanism would thus "duplicate".
In particular, Spain pointed out "the overabundance of studies and reports", particularly from GRECO, considering that a specific instrument at European level would not reveal "anything new". For Luxembourg, the establishment of such a mechanism would have no added value and would create an additional administrative burden.
It should be noted that some Member States, notably Luxembourg and Bulgaria, have welcomed the Commission's proposal, as part of its new annual monitoring mechanism for the rule of law (see EUROPE 12298/2), to also include the fight against corruption. More cautiously, Estonia claimed that it needed additional information from the Commission before taking a decision.
The results of the discussion will be included in a report, said Finnish Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson at the outcome of the meeting. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)