On 31 March 2017, the PRECOP II held its 2nd Steering Committee meeting at the Council of Europe Programme Office in Moscow. The meeting was co-chaired by Mr Boris Titov, Federal Ombudsman for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs and Mr Petr Sich, Head of the Council of Europe Programme Office in the Russian Federation.

The Steering Committee discussed the outcomes of the inception phase, and implementation modalities and workplan of activities for the next 6-month period (1 April -30 September 2017).

Mr Titov thanked the Council of Europe for the efficiency in conducting project activities and delivering concrete results within tight timeframe and against the quite difficult context the project had to operate in the inception phase. He underlined the importance of fighting corruption affecting businesses at the municipal level and called for greater involvement of municipal authorities and businesses in the activities of the next phase.