Council of Europe

• Council of Europe
• Human Rights and Rule of Law
• Group of States against corruption (GRECO)

GRECO publishes its Tenth General Activity Report, an overview of 2009

News Flash

Strasbourg, 24 June 2010 - The report provides a synthesis of all activities of GRECO in 2009, whose highlight was GRECO’s 10th Anniversary, celebrated on 5 October.

A number of high-level speakers emphasised that GRECO had set concrete benchmarks in a great number of areas, including transparency of political financing, which policy makers had to bear in mind. The need for a collective effort to ensure that the international anti-corruption movement was not jeopardised through duplication of efforts, the setting of conflicting standards and a multiplication of reporting duties on States was also clearly stated.

In addition to an account of co-operation with other international players, and the European Union in particular, the report for 2009 contains a feature article on “the experience with the criminal offence of trading in influence in France”, which also presents examples of good practice in this field.

In his presentation of the report to the Committee of Ministers earlier this month, GRECO’s President, Mr Drago KOS, stressed that the international anti-corruption movement would be well advised to build on the current momentum to ensure sustainable and properly designed anti-corruption policies. He went on to stress that local and regional authorities which often face significant corruption risks in their daily operations have also an important role to play.

GRECO’s membership currently stands at 47 (including the United States of America).

Link to the report