As announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in September (see EUROPE 13021/3), the Commission proposed new rules on Wednesday 3 May to harmonise the fight against corruption between Member States by recasting the different existing tools: the Council Framework Decision 2003/568 and the Convention on Officials of the European Communities and of the Member States into one new directive.
While corruption is estimated to cost around €120 billion in the EU each year and is an activity for 60% of organised crime groups, the Commission wants to strengthen the penalties for the offence of trading in influence throughout the EU, to tighten up the procedures for waiving immunities and, more generally, to invite the Member States to punish public officials and civil servants linked to corrupt practices more severely.
The Commission’s plan is also to strengthen the culture of integrity. This varies greatly between Member States, as highlighted in the Commission’s annual reports on the rule of law, with northern EU countries, for example, being perceived as the least corrupt.
“We are rewriting legislation that is over 20 years old. Passive and private corruption, not only bribes, but all forms of influence peddling, abuse of power, embezzlement, obstruction of justice should be criminalised”, commented Commission Vice-President Margarítis Schinás.
The new directive, which for the first time combines public and private sector corruption into a single legal act, thus extends the list of corruption offences to cover embezzlement, trading in influence, abuse of office as well as obstruction of justice and illicit enrichment linked to corruption offences, beyond the more traditional corruption offences, the Commission explains in its communication.
It also sets higher levels of punishment, with a minimum/maximum sentence of imprisonment of between four and six years depending on the seriousness of the offence (compared to three years in the current texts) as well as aggravating and mitigating circumstances, for example when the offender holds a high-level public office or is responsible for law enforcement. Mitigating circumstances could include situations where the perpetrator identifies other perpetrators or helps to bring them to justice.
Disqualification from office, exclusion from public funds, prohibition from engaging in commercial activities are added to the list of possible sanctions as well as the link of a person convicted of corruption with a third country or an organised crime group.
In some Member States, however, the directive may have little impact, as some countries are already more advanced, with penalties of 10 years’ imprisonment and substantial fines for bribery of public officials.
On prevention and the creation of a culture of integrity, the proposed Directive requires Member States to take measures such as information and awareness-raising campaigns, research and education programmes and to encourage civil society and community organisations to participate in anti-corruption efforts.
It also calls on them to ensure that essential preventive tools are put in place, “such as open access to public interest information, effective rules for disclosure and management of conflicts of interest in the public sector, effective rules for disclosure and verification of public officials’ assets and effective rules governing the interaction between the private and public sectors (‘revolving doors’)”.
The proposal was accompanied on Wednesday by a regulation on restrictive measures against corruption (see related article). With regard to the corruption of European officials, which ‘Qatargate’ has brought to light, the Commission will soon present its ‘European Ethics Corps’.
Link to the Communication and the Directive: https://aeur.eu/f/6nz ; https://aeur.eu/f/6o0 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)