The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) published, on Wednesday 3 February, a monitoring report on Slovakia’s progress in implementing 16 recommendations contained in a previous evaluation looking at the prevention of corruption among parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors. This issue is all the more crucial since it was at the heart of the Slovak parliamentary elections of February 2020, themselves marked by the revelations about the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak in 2018.
Half of these recommendations have not been fully implemented more than five years after their adoption, notes GRECO, which describes the overall response to the recommendations as “disappointing”.
With regard to parliamentarians, he noted that they are now obliged to declare any gifts, benefits, etc., but it does not seem as if any progress has been made regarding the declaration of assets. The finalisation of a Code of Ethics is required, as well as greater transparency in the legislative process, particularly with regard to lobbying.
The same disappointing results are true for judges. The rules for interpreting their Code of Ethics remain unclear and the threshold above which gifts must be declared is set too high.
As regards public prosecutors, GRECO welcomes the legislative amendments that oblige them to declare any of their assets that are above a certain value. Link to the report: https://bit.ly/3oJz8DY (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)