In meetings in Copenhagen on 7 April, the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) called on Denmark to fully implement GRECO’s recommendations to prevent corruption and strengthen integrity within the Parliament, the central government (persons with top executive functions) and the police force.
This high-level visit followed the finding by GRECO in December 2023 that Denmark had not demonstrated sufficient progress in the implementation of the recommendations addressed to the country under its Fifth Evaluation Round, triggering the application of GRECO’s non-compliance procedure. Given that Denmark had long shown no progress in implementing the recommendations addressed to it under the Fourth Evaluation Round, GRECO considered that the importance of complying with those outstanding recommendations (all concerning members of parliament) should be emphasised during the same high-level visit. The visit offered an opportunity to discuss the best ways of achieving the legislative and policy changes recommended by GRECO.
The GRECO delegation met with Peter Hummelgaard Thomsen, Minister of Justice; Anette Ebbesen, Head of Department in the Danish National Police; Christian Liebing, the Director of the Danish Employee and Competence Agency; Marie Hansen, Secretary General of the Danish Parliament; Jens Teilberg Søndergaard, Deputy Secretary General of the Danish Parliament; Clara Worsaae Møller, Head of the Danish Delegation to GRECO; as well as other senior officials.
The delegation noted the information provided by the Danish authorities during the visit. It welcomed the commitment expressed at the highest level to implement GRECO’s recommendations in respect of top executive functions and law enforcement and awaits swift action in this regard.
However, the delegation deeply regretted that no additional measures were foreseen to address the recommendations regarding members of Parliament. This is contrary to Denmark’s commitment as a member of GRECO to effectively prevent corruption. GRECO therefore urges the Danish Parliament to strengthen integrity measures for parliamentarians as a matter of priority.
Almost 6 years after the adoption of its Fifth-Round evaluation report on Denmark, only 2 out of 14 recommendations have been implemented in full. Moreover, 11 years after the adoption of the Fourth Round Evaluation Report, only 2 out of 6 recommendations have been implemented in full. This raises concerns about Denmark’s frameworks to effectively prevent public sector corruption. The Danish government and Parliament are urged to take prompt and effective action to implement the outstanding recommendations. These include notably:
- developing a strategy for the integrity of persons with top executive functions on the basis of risk analysis;
- adopting a code of conduct for persons with top executive functions, including practical guidance, and introducing a mechanism of supervision and enforcement;
- improving public access to information;
- introducing rules and guidance on how persons entrusted with top executive functions engage in contacts with lobbyists and increasing the transparency of such contacts;
- introducing rules regarding the employment of persons entrusted with top executive functions after they leave the public service; and adopting a policy to minimise the risk of conflicts of interest with regard to the employment of police staff after they leave the police service;
- strengthening the system of asset declarations in respect of persons with top executive functions and ensuring substantive verification of the declarations;
- developing a streamlined system for authorisation and follow-up of secondary activities within the police;
- raising awareness of police staff of their duty to report corruption-related misconduct within the police service;
- developing a code of conduct for members of parliament, complemented by training, counselling and supervision mechanism;
- introducing a requirement of ad hoc disclosure for members of parliament when a conflict of interest may emerge in relation to a matter under consideration in parliamentary proceedings.
GRECO will review the measures taken by the Danish authorities to implement its Fifth-Round recommendations and their effectiveness in June 2025 and its Fourth Round recommendations in 2026.
The GRECO delegation comprised of GRECO’s President, David Meyer; Council of Europe Director of Security, Integrity and Rule of Law, Hanne Juncher; the Heads of Delegation to GRECO of Cyprus, Alexia Kalispera; and of Sweden, Johan Davidsson; as well as GRECO Executive Secretary Livia Stoica Becht and Senior Legal Adviser in the GRECO Secretariat, Victoria Cherniychuk.
