Albania’s governing and opposition parties passed a judicial reform package, meeting the condition of the European Union for accession talks. The constitutional package revamping the judiciary received unanimous approval in the 140-member chamber, seen as crucial to giving the reform a solid foundation. The European Union wants the reform to ensure it can make the country’s judiciary independent and capable of fighting endemic corruption, while also ending impunity for politicians. Hailing the vote, the EU said the reform would give citizens an “accountable, independent and transparent” judiciary and contribute to the fight against organised crime and corruption.

A report published by the anti-corruption coalition, Southeast Europe Leadership for Development and Integrity (SELDI), suggests that political corruption replaced petty bribery as the leading concern of social and economic damage in the region. Recorded as the most corrupt nation in Southeast Europe, Albania saw an increase of more than 4% to a total of 50% in corruption pressure in 2016, with almost every second citizen reporting that they had been asked for a bribe.

Ziyafat Asgarov, the chairman of the anti-corruption committee and the vice-speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament, outlined the importance of implementing a new Referendum Act to keep up with the country’s public, political and socio-economic changes over the last seven years. In reference to the draft Referendum Act submitted by Azerbaijan’s President, Asgarov stated that referendums are of great importance in terms of improving the system of governance in the country, reinforcing state authorities and ensuring human rights and freedoms at a higher level.

The Main Anti-Corruption CoE anti-corruption digest 2 July 2016 Department under the General Prosecutor’s Office of Azerbaijan has released the results of corruption activity for the first half of 2016. The report estimated damages of AZN 9.785 million from corruption schemes and the GPO announced that it had recovered 32.2% of the amount and hoped to pursue the remaining finances to be repaid in accordance with the law.

Although significant gifts are registered in asset declarations of some official and immediate family members, no declaration contains information on the sources of such gifts, making public finances in Armenia substantially less transparent. The significant value coupled with no information regarding the origin of the gift has brought into question the true character of such assets.

A memorandum of understanding was signed following a meeting between Armenia’s Chairman of the Investigative Committee and Iran’s Chairman of the General Inspection Organisation. Aghvan Hovsepyan and Naser Seraj contracted to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the nations’ fights against corruption, the protection of human rights and judicial understanding by signing a three year agreement.

A court in Bosnia and Herzegovina ruled that the banking agency of the autonomous Republika Srpska had acted illegally by withholding records from the anti-corruption group Transparency International (TI). By refusing to comply with a request from TI for external auditors’ reports on the failed Banka Srpske, which had its license revoked by the agency in late 2015, the Republika Srpska was ruled to have illegally withheld information and improperly cited trade secrets as a reason for withholding information. The investigation has seen eleven arrests so far, while irregularities in Republika Srpska’s banking sector have been a key target of the region’s opposition, who have accused the government of Milorad Dodik of turning a blind eye to the abuses.

The high-profile case against one of the most popular state top manager and senator Anna Shareiko has finished with her release from custody in the courtroom as parliamentary election campaign kicked off in Belarus. Over the past few years, Anna Shareiko was the third MP to face corruption charges by the authorities.

The Minsk Court began the hearing of the high-profile case of a drug-dealing network, labelled in the media as LegalMinsk. After its launch in 2011, it grew into the biggest online retailer of 'spice' drugs. According to the prosecution, LegalMinsk infiltrated several law enforcement agencies and aspired to monopolise drug trafficking in Belarus. One of the accused is a former employee of the Central Department of Combating Organised Crime and Corruption, Kanstancin Viliuga, who provided the gang with expert assessment of the drugs.

The state attorney has filed charges against former Prime Minister Petr Nečas and his wife Jana Nečasová over allegations of bribery. Their case involves an accusation that they offered three MPs in Petr Nečas’s Civic Democrats, positions at state companies in exchange for backing a government bill. Jana Nečasová also faces charges of not paying tax on gifts, such as jewellery and expensive handbags, valued at CZK 10 million. Her arrest in 2013 had subsequently brought about the fall of Nečas’s cabinet.

The police’s anti-corruption squad have begun investigating financial operations at the bankrupt OKD mining company, according to Czech Television. The company had debts amounting to 17 billion crowns and there were further suspicions that millions of crowns were removed from the firm illegally and transferred to other companies. Several officials at OKD and its parent company, NWR, are suspected of financial mismanagement and abuse of office.

Macedonian and Italian Justice Ministers Valdet Xhaferi and Andrea Orlando signed bilateral agreements related to the European conventions on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters and extradition, aiming to improve the relations and cooperation between the countries. The agreements cover legal aid and execution of requests for legal assistance, postponing the execution, hearing by video conferences, identification of banking and financial data and the extradition of nationals for offenses of organized crime, corruption and money laundering. 

The EU Commission has decided to cut the EU pre-accession IPA 2 funds allocated for Macedonia for 2016 by over €27 million, according to Commission spokesperson Maja Kocijančić. The decision was attributed to the fact that the Macedonian authorities had shown no willingness to fulfill their reform priorities or the 2015 Przino agreement. The funds were aimed at the sectors of transport, justice and the management of public finance. The Commission also outlined plans to stop the disbursement of an additional €50 million allocated for Macedonia from the IPA 2 funds. 

Bringing together nearly 300 parliamentarians from 54 OSCE participating states, the 25th Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly took place in early July in Tbilisi. The Session was held under the theme "25 Years of Parliamentary Co-operation: Building Trust Through Dialogue," commemorating the quarter-century anniversary of the Assembly's work. At the close of the Session, the Assembly adopted the Tbilisi Declaration and elected its new leadership. Austrian parliamentarian Christine Muttonen was elected President for a one-year term, renewable once.

The Association Agreement (AA) between the European Union and Georgia fully entered into force from 1 July 2016. The Association Agreement aims to deepen political and economic relations between the EU and Georgia, also through the creation of a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). By removing customs tariffs and quotas and by comprehensively approximating trade-related laws and regulations to the standards of the European Union, the Agreement offers Georgia a framework for boosting trade and economic growth. It is hoped that this will facilitate Georgia's progressive integration with the EU single market.

A survey from IFC, which focuses exclusively on the private sector in emerging markets, found that there is virtually no perception of corruption in Georgia according to business representatives and that the vast majority of firms are satisfied with the business environment. Only 0.03 percent of survey respondents said their business had encountered government corruption in the past year, while 0.75 percent said they heard about corrupt practices experienced by others. Conducted by the IFC Georgia Investment Climate Project and based on 2015 data, the Georgia Business Perception Survey examined more than 800 small, medium and large local and international businesses in Georgia to help the government identify next steps to improve the investment climate and boost growth.

Prime Minister Hani Mulki said that reports of the Jordan Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission (JIACC) have to measure the integrity of the government as a whole, besides individual administrations and other sectors. The remarks came during a meeting with JIACC President Mohammad Allaf, who presented Mulki with the 2015 report of the ombudsman bureau and the anti-corruption commission before they were cancelled and succeeded by the JIACC. The anti-graft report outlines the achievements of the commission, one of which is that it received 1072 cases during 2015, of which it processed 956, mainly by referring them to the general prosecutor office, while there were five cases that were referred to the witness protection unit.

Authorities in Kosovo stated that they have charged an Iranian man with financing terrorism and money laundering through a non-governmental group he operates called the Qur’an Foundation of Kosova. The allegations against Hasan Azari Bejandi include charges that he laundered nearly $1 million in undeclared cash between 2014 and 2015. The group has claimed that its goals are to establish a museum of Iranian culture in Kosovo and endow a chair of Iranian studies at the University of Pristina. However, Kosovo’s Express newspaper reported that the nongovernmental organization had been spreading anti-Western and anti-Semitic propaganda.
 

After the EU Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee voted in favour of visa liberalisation for Kosovo, the country's own institutions continue to delay addressing the border demarcation deal with Montenegro, which is a 
CoE anti-corruption digest 5 July 2016 condition for the visa agreement with the EU to take effect. The EU recommended visa liberalisation for Kosovo in May, but on condition that Kosovo step up efforts to tackle
organised crime and corruption and ratifies the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro, signed in August 2015 between the two countries. But while police have since made several high-profile arrests, the government has failed to present a draft law on the border agreement with Montenegro to parliament.

The secretary of the Kyrgyz Defence Council, Temir Dzhumakadyrov, announced proposed changes to law enforcement bodies following a meeting in early July. He felt that the reform should revolve around putting pressure on the system to be more accountable and that the set-up had to move away from duplicating functions. He added that the General Prosecutor’s office will be deprived of the investigating authorities. They are planned to be transferred to the National Security Committee and the State Service for Combating Economic Crimes.

The ex-president of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marović, has been scheduled to reappear in court in early August after signing a plea bargain with the special prosecution for organised crime and corruption. Marović was the first and last president of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, which was dissolved in 2006, after the Montenegrins had voted in favour of independence. His family and associates were widely criticised in the media for a range of abuses and he was later arrested in December 2015 in connection with a long-running case focusing on Budva. After five months in detention, he agreed to reveal where 15 million euros that went missing from the Budva municipality ended up, in exchange for a reduced jail term.

Montenegrin President Filip Vujanović has set the parliamentary elections for October 16, a vote seen as crucial to the country’s aspirations to join the European Union and NATO. Montenegro opened accession talks with the European Union in 2011 and was invited to join NATO in December 2015. However, to progress on both fronts, it has been asked to step up the fight against corruption and show that its electoral process is transparent and fair. In May, the Parliament approved legislation giving opposition parties control of the finance, labour, police and agriculture ministries and state institutions such as the investment agency, pension fund and tax office to demonstrate a commitment to financial transparency.

The Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body GRECO called on Moldova to improve and to ensure the effective implementation of anti-corruption legislation in respect of parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors. GRECO’s report identified the inconsistent application of anti-corruption laws and the lack of independence of corruption-fighting institutions as key problems which must be addressed swiftly.

An inaugural anti-corruption “hackathon” event was held in Chisinau under the initiative of the United Nations Development Programme and with the financial support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the event, teams worked to conceptualise and develop innovative solutions to engage citizens to report corruption and to encourage authorities to meaningfully fight the stigma. Attended by over fifty participants, the winners were awarded $10,000 and were selected to be coached by mentors to help develop their winning idea for public use.
 

 Following two years of negotiations, the Association Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Moldova entered into force on July 1. Aiming to deepen political and economic relations between the EU and Moldova, it also offers the nation a framework for boosting trade and economic growth as well as access to the EU market for products and services. If implemented completely, it will facilitate Moldova’s progressive integration within the EU single market. At the signing event, EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn called for more to be done in the country to effectively address corruption and improve governance.

On the 17th anniversary of the Throne Day, King Mohammed VI stressed that fighting corruption is a cause championed by both state and society, during a speech to the nation. Noting that fighting corruption must not be seen as an opportunity for politicking, he stressed that “no one can fight corruption alone, be it an individual, a political party or an association”. The monarch also underlined that the new concept of power is based on accountability, through monitoring and control mechanisms, law enforcement and, for elected officials, through elections and citizens’ trust.
 

Romania's Court of Appeal has upheld prison sentences for eight people for money laundering and embezzlement worth 83.5 million euros ($92 million). Sorin Ovidiu Vântu, who has boasted of deserving a life sentence for all his activities, was sentenced to six years and two months in prison. Trade union leader Liviu Luca was sentenced to six years in prison for misusing the funds of Petromservice, a petroleum-facility maintenance company. The court on
Friday also confirmed sentences for six other former company employees to prison terms.

Romania’s anti-corruption prosecutors sent to trial Craiova’s mayor, Lia Olguța Vasilescu. They charged her with bribery, using authority to extort money, and money laundering. Before the  CoE anti-corruption digest 7 July 2016 municipal elections in 2012, Vasilescu used her influence to determine several local investors to sponsor her campaign, in exchange for using her political influence to their benefit, according to prosecutors. She received several donations from local businessmen, including EUR 25,000 for the payment of a concert held by a foreign singer.

Russia’s Head of the Customs agency, Andrei Belyaninov announced his resignation several days after investigators searched his home and found hundreds of thousand dollars stashed in shoe boxes. The Russian government's website published a decree signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stating Belyaninov had handed in his resignation. Belyaninov's replacement is Vladimir Bulavin. The resignation came amid a flurry of dismissals and appointments by President Vladimir Putin, before Russians elect a new Parliament in September.

The Russian public chamber has proposed a nationwide program in which civil servants, politicians and civil activists undergo polygraph tests to detect and purge those previously engaged in corruption schemes. Currently polygraph tests are strictly voluntary as Russian law does not contain any regulations concerning this procedure. In order to solidify the proposals, the Public Chamber intends to prepare some legislative basis surrounding polygraph tests and cases to describe when they can be used. After these bills are prepared and drafted, the activists intend to promote universal and systematic checks.

 Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill that imposes tougher punishments for anyone found guilty of corruption related to sports activity in Russia. The bill includes a provision on prison terms of between eight and fifteen years for anyone who is proved to have taken a bribe of more than 1 million rubles ($15,700) in relation to sports. Earlier in the month, Putin announced that Russian law enforcers would have more power when investigating doping cases. The news comes as Russia battles to restore its image as an international sporting power after a wide-spread doping scandal hit many athletes. 

 In response to mounting allegations of political pressure on the media, the Serbian Government organized an exhibition entitled “Uncensored Lies” in an effort to demonstrate the media’s wrongful attacks on the governing regime. The exhibition predominantly features pieces from media outlets, investigative journalism networks and TV shows that are being identified as “enemies of the state” by outlets close to the current ruling party. The Leader of the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia criticised the exhibition and stated that by displaying a collection of media articles, the state had effectively produced a mass “wanted list”. 

 For the second month in a row, residents of Belgrade protested over the demolition of buildings located on the land of the future Belgrade Waterfront complex. The Belgrade Waterfront project was announced in 2012 as a joint venture between the Serbian Government and Eagle Hills Company from UAE worth 3.8 million euros. However the contract between the State and the investors, which was never made public, is considered by many as a sham which will end up being paid out of the pocket of the Serbian tax payers. The illegal demolition of buildings located on the grounds of the future complex, which were subject to expropriation, is seen as proof of shady deals surrounding this investment.

 Thousands of Tunisians have demonstrated throughout July in protest against a bill being discussed in Parliament to grant amnesty to people accused of corruption. If the "economic reconciliation" bill is passed, people accused of corruption would not be prosecuted but would instead pay a fine and reimburse embezzled funds. When the bill was submitted to parliament last year by President Beji Caid Essebsi it sparked outrage, with demonstrators taking to the streets to denounce it. Demonstrations against the bill have continued in Tunis and other cities as the bill is debated by a parliamentary commission.

The bill “on exposure of corruption and whistleblower protection” aims to fight corruption, strengthen citizens’ confidence in the government and private companies and encourage their participation in the development and implementation of policies against corruption.

Members of the Tunisian Parliament have called for an official inquiry into the acquisition of Malta’s telecommunications company GO by Tunisie Telecom (TT), according to the Times of Malta. Following a grilling of TT’s CEO, Nizar Bouguila, by the Tunisian Parliament’s Commission on Good Governance and the Fight Against Corruption, opposition MPs said that they were not satisfied with the deal and wanted the government to look into it. MP Ghazi Chouachi said the news that TT was acquiring GO Malta took everyone in the Tunisian telecommunications industry by surprise, particularly due to the bad financial state of the company, considering it had lost €30 million last year. 

During Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Kiev, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko avoided media questions regarding the nation’s battle against corruption and its impact on foreign investment. The president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, Andy Hunder, recently warned that his members want "to see some of these big fish going down and being brought to accountability for everything that's been stolen”. Likewise, Anastasia Krasnosilska of the Anti-Corruption Action Center of Ukraine, has stated the nation has “only tackled abuses because of foreign pressure and then only after lengthy foot-dragging”.

 Two high-level Ukrainian officials have become the latest victims of the nation’s intensified fight against corruption. Sergiy Pereloma, the vice-chairman of Naftogaz, has been charged with embezzlement of almost US $10 million while buying gas at an inflated price. Likewise, Svyatoslav Protas, the chief public health physician of Ukraine, is also accused of taking a bribe of more than US $16000.

During his visit to Kiev, the EU Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn announced that the European Commission planned to allocate a further 15 million euros to Ukraine to fight against corruption. Hahn emphasised that clear progress in sectors including the judicial system, the civil service and the energy industry, were crucial for continued collaboration.