In a report published on Thursday 20 February, the Council of Europe's anti-corruption group (GRECO) praises Ukraine’s progress in the fight against corruption of parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors, “at an extremely difficult time for this Member State, during the ongoing war of aggression by the Russian Federation”.
The report calls on the authorities to maintain this momentum.
Among the advances, GRECO notes the implementation of its recommendations on the monitoring of financial disclosure obligations, the introduction of rules governing relations between parliamentarians and lobbyists, and the simplification of the procedure for appointing judges.
It also includes the appointment of members of the High Council of Justice, the High Qualification Commission of Judges and the Public Council of Integrity.
The recommendations that remain to be implemented concern the public prosecutor.
Ukraine has yet to establish a system of random allocation of cases to individual prosecutors, as well as defining more precisely disciplinary offences relating to prosecutors’ conduct and compliance with ethical norms.
It must also extend the range of disciplinary sanctions to make them more effective and proportionate.
A progress report on the implementation of these recommendations is expected by 30 November 2025.
As a reminder, on 7 November 2023, the European Commission had recommended the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine, making the fight against corruption one of the overriding requirements.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/fl6 (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)