Albania elections: free campaigning, basic freedoms respected, but a politicised election administration reduced trust. The 25 June parliamentary elections in Albania took place following a political agreement between the leaders of the Socialist Party (SP) and Democratic Party (DP). According to the preliminary conclusions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and OSCE/ODHIR Election Observation Mission, electoral contestants were able to campaign freely and fundamental freedoms of assembly and expression were respected. The amended legislation contributed to transparency and accountability of campaign financing, addressing some Council of Europe recommendations. New measures to reduce campaign costs were welcomed and positively assessed by most mission interlocutors. According to international observers, the Central Election Commission operated transparently, with regular public sessions, and completed its core tasks despite the complex set of legal, institutional, financial, and administrative challenges that followed the political agreement.

OSCE/ODHIR Election Observation Mission stated that the implementation of the political agreement, however, created challenges for the election administration and resulted in a selective and inconsistent application of the law.

To the former MP Luca Volonte, who is now under investigation for corruption and money laundering. According to Milanese prosecutors, the politician would have oriented the vote of the Popular Christian - Democrat Group (EPP) in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to reject a report on political prisoners to the benefit of the Azerbaijani government. 

The seminar focused on key aspects of the political funding, such as the transparency of political funding, monitoring in compliance with existing regulations and possible sanctions. The participants who were representatives of Central Election Commission, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, Chamber of Auditors and political parties were also informed about the requirements for financial reporting as per national legislation.

An army general and two other senior Armenian Defense Ministry officials have been arrested in separate corruption investigations conducted by law-enforcement authorities. Although the facts of the case have not been released, two men are suspected of abuse of power and third of negligent attitude towards military service, all resulting in “severe consequences.”

Analysis conducted by the investigative journalism network Hetq revealed a number of malfeasances within the electricity sector in Armenia. Findings including money transfers and debt write off to the Nairit and Vanadzor chemical plants, significant money transfers to foundations and entities linked to the Government and debt write off for “privileged” consumers. The main electricity supplier, Electricity Networks of Armenia (ENA), had been privatised in 2000. The analysis was triggered following huge protests which took place in 2015 over electricity costs.

European Union and US envoys warned Bosnia and Herzegovina's leaders that the country risked missing out on closer ties with the EU in the near term and losing 2 billion euros in support due to a stalemate over reforms. In a joint statement, US ambassador Maureen Cormack and EU Special Representative Lars-Gunnar Wigemark stated that “the window to secure a positive response…is closing fast” and distanced reports that the country was getting closer to accession. In exchange for reforms, the international community has pledged to secure over two billion euros in budget and infrastructure support for the country over the next three to four years, the diplomats said.

Bosnia and Herzegovina still has not made public the asset declarations of judges and prosecutors. By comparison, asset declarations of judges and prosecutors from neighboring Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia are publicly available on the Internet.

SIPA officials started the operation code-named "Čarli" in the territory of Cazin and Velika Kladusa. Searches of facilities in 14 locations are in progress as well as apprehension of a number of persons suspected to be members of an organized criminal group, in conjunction with other criminal offenses.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has praised the Belarusian government for the measures it has taken to stabilize the macroeconomic situation, according to the IMF Mission Chief for Belarus Peter Dohlman. He pointed out that in late 2014 and throughout a considerable part of 2015, the financial markets in Belarus were highly volatile, stating that “the rapid slump of the Belarusian ruble spurred inflation and further affected the already precarious financial standing of enterprises many of which were repaying foreign currency loans”. He added that the government took vigorous measures to stabilize the economic situation, and that such measures deserve praise.

President Barack Obama signed an order to extend sanctions against a number of Belarusian officials for “undermining Belarus's democratic processes”, “human rights abuses” and “engaging in public corruption”. In February 2016, the EU agreed not to prolong economic sanctions against 170 Belarusian citizens, including the President, following Minsk’s decision to release some of its political prisoners.

At issue is the controversial revamp merging police units fighting economic and organised crime signed into law by Social Democrat interior minister Milan Chovanec. Billionaire Finance Minister Andrej Babis from ANO party insists the reform will hamper measures to fight corruption.

In respect of the non-prosecution of bribery under certain circumstances. The purpose of the Amendment is to strengthen the motivation for offenders to report bribery in cases where someone else asked them to commit a bribe. Under the current legislation, active and passive corruption are both punishable, so offenders are not motivated to report such behaviour to law enforcement authorities. The Amendment should make up for the fact that the Penal Code so far lacks any special effective remorse provision for bribery and indirect corruption. The Amendment will come into effect on 1 July 2016.

To demonstrate against corruption in the government. Over 20,000 people marched in Skopje on 20 June. Protesters are demanding fair elections in the former Yugoslav Republic, after an EU mandated election was suspended due to corruption allegations against President Gjorge Ivanov and former prime minister Nikola Gruevski.

On April 12, President Ivanov pardoned top politicians and their associates who were under investigation, effectively blocking the work of the Special Prosecution which had been set up to probe high-level corruption. The pardons were condemned by the EU and US considering it a harmful move that had undermined the EU-brokered deal on resolving the crisis. Following criticism, President Gjorge Ivanov withdrew all 56 pardons which sparked mass protests and deepened the country’s political crisis.

As a part of the working visit to Strasbourg. The sides discussed the recent security environment in the occupied territories and both the issue for protection of human rights and the readiness for the upcoming parliamentary elections. The President of Georgia reiterated his concern by the fact of murder committed by the representatives of the occupation regime and he deems situation in Abkazia region as highly alarming.

By the Council of Europe. Policy makers and practitioners from the Eastern Partnership countries had the opportunity to discuss integrity testing as a possible anti-corruption prevention and suppression mechanism, learning from Romania’s, United Kingdom’s and Moldova’s experience.

All 28 member states agree Georgia has done incredibly good work to implement all obligations for visa-free travel and these efforts deserve to be recognized as soon as possible.

as the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Law went into effect. The commission will be administratively and financially independent, managed and supervised by a president and four board members that were appointed for a four-year term by the Royal Decree. JIACC will receive complaints, carry out investigation of administrative and financial corruption, embark on legal procedures that allow suing perpetrators and freezing their mobile and immobile assets.

The declared assets of Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa and President Hashim Thaci are to become the subject of a financial investigation by the Kosovo Anti-Corruption Agency. By law, 20 per cent of public officials
obliged to file their annual declarations of assets are selected for further auditing – a procedure which is done through a draw.
 

Known as EULEX until June 2018, whose work was suspended earlier this week because of a dispute over its role. The mission handles war crimes and other cases considered too sensitive for local prosecutors and judges. Senior officials from the Democratic Party of Kosovo and close allies of President Hashim Thaci have been jailed or accused of war crimes, corruption and organised crime.

The Assembly has elected Shaip Havolli as head of the Kosovo* Anti-Corruption Agency. Havolli who served as head of the economic crimes unit at Kosovo* Police since 2011 will take up his new duties in September.
 

The former head of the investigative department of Kyrgyzstan’s General Prosecutor's office, Kylychbek Arpachiev, was found guilty of extortion and sentenced to 14 years in prison. In March 2015, the Anti-Corruption Agency of the National Security Committee of Kyrgyzstan caught Arpachiev receiving a $100,000 bribe. He was subsequently prosecuted for extortion, sentenced to prison and had his property confiscated. Once released, Arpachiev will not be allowed to work in the office of the prosecutor general for three years.

At least 22 civil servants were brought to disciplinary responsibility for failing to sufficiently fight against corruption, since the beginning of the year, according to the Coordination Council on Corruption Control. The deputy head of the Department of the Prosecutor General's Office, Marlenbek Chorobekov, revealed that the supervisory authority had conducted 192 checks of the execution of two presidential decrees on the elimination of corruption during 2015.

Was said at the round table.
 

As considered by a growing number of citizens. According to the citizens, the leaders in corruption at the national level are politicians, police, customs and the health sector.

For failure to hear critical evidence in the case of a family accused of laundering more than €7 million, asking that the family’s December 2015 acquittal be overturned. According to the indictment, Safet, Amina and Mersudin Kalic worked together from 2005 to 2011 to conceal the method of obtaining money from the drug business through banking and financial operations.

Svetozar Marovic, a high-ranking official of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), has quit politics after signing an agreement with the Special Prosecutor and admitting several crimes, including heading a criminal organization that embezzled tens of millions of Euros from the state budget. Prime Minister Djukanovic said that Marovic alone was responsible. Agreement means that Marovic will serve four years and three months in state prison and pay a fine of € 1 million.

Prosecutors have detained businessman Ilan Shor, mayor of Orhei, on suspicion of money laundering connected to the disappearance of $1 billion from three Moldovan banks in 2014.

Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip said that Russia was not offering enough help to his government to track down and recover $1 billion that was siphoned from the banking system. The Prime Minister has said that some countries, for example in Baltics, are working really well with Moldova in order to trace down the assets, however Russia is not one of them. He, also, outlined a series of reform measures to restore public confidence in the political system, such as changing the mandate of the anti-corruption agency to focus only on high-level cases.

The bill’s 123 articles include provisions that forbid imprisonment and fines for “peaceful expression,” recognize the freedom of electronic media, establish the rights of journalists and the state’s commitment to protect journalists from attacks, increase the independence of the press, strengthen the guarantees of fair trial for journalists, and make comprehensive reforms to libel laws.

Despite the government’s decision to impose prison terms on students caught cheating or convicted of leaking national exams, of the 306,000 students taking the regional baccalaureate exam, the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training has reportedly recorded 3,048 cases of cheating.

The Constitutional Court faced an issue whether to decriminalize the offense of abuse of office as a response to a case brought by several officials facing charges and it was unanimously decided it remains a criminal offense. Criminal Code of Romania defined abuse of office as officials not doing their
jobs or doing them so inappropriately they cause damage. The court decided to narrow the definition by replacing the phrase “doing their job inappropriately” with “by breaking the law”. 

Former Microsoft Romania general manager Calin Tatomir was arrested together with six others and placed under preventive arrest for 30 days, under allegations of having illegally obtained RON 12 million (€2.65) resulting from tax evasion and other RON 13 million (€2.87) using a money laundering scheme involving five companies created for this purpose. 

More than a quarter of the recently elected mayors of Romania’s 41 counties are under investigation or have been placed under preventative arrest over corruption charges as Romanian law does not exclude those involved in corruption probes from running for office. 

The Federal Security Service has conducted 14 simultaneous raids on the Church of Scientology offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It seized documents that could shed light on the organization’s illegal financial dealings in Russia.

Russia’s Federation Council unanimously voted to reappoint Prosecutor General Yury Chaika for another five-year term, in the midst of corruption allegations involving his sons and linking his deputy prosecutor to an organized crime gang. Currently, there is no official investigation on the allegations and reappointment constitutes more of an ethical problem. According to some experts, in Russia there is no article in the criminal code about illicit enrichment so Chaika’s sons are not required to disclose the sources of their wealth. Moreover, the concept of "conflict of interest" is almost inexistent so to prove that sons used father’s influence is difficult.

The text of the oath would include promises to serve the interests of Russian citizens, abide by the Russian Constitution and laws, and never allow personal interests to outweigh public duty. Violations of these promises would lead to disciplinary procedures. The idea to introduce an oath was proposed by CoE anti-corruption digest 7 June 2016 President Vladimir Putin as one of the urgent measures targeting corruption.

The owner of Delta Holding and allegedly the wealthiest man in Serbia has been convicted at first instance to 5 years of prison and a fine of 8 million Dinars (€65 ths) for aiding his son Marko Miskovic evade taxes in the privatization of several road construction companies. As his son, Miskovic Sr. was acquitted of embezzlement charges. Both the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office and the defence will likely challenge the conviction on appeal. 

The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body (MONEYVAL) in its new report found that Serbia does not fight money laundering and financing of terrorism on a systematic and consistent basis. The report identifies specific threats and vulnerabilities emanating from organised criminal groups involved in the smuggling and trafficking of narcotic drugs and trafficking of human beings. Tax evasion and corruption offences are considered to generate substantial criminal proceeds.

 According to information recently published by the Serbian Center for Investigative Journalism (CINS), one of the country’s biggest corporate tax debtors in 2014, Pink Television (Pink International) has received, the same year, €3.9 million worth of credit from the Serbian Export Credit and Insurance Agency. According to data from tax authorities from that year, Pink had a total debt of more than €3.5 million, with €1.5 million in taxes still owed just several days before the first tranche of support received from the Agency. According to applicable rules, in order to receive assistance from the Agency, a company must show that it has a clear tax record. Owner of the Pink Television is known for close ties to different ruling regimes over the years. 

 Ukrainian Parliament voted for constitutional amendments on judicial reform directed on the limiting the immunity of judges and establishing an anticorruption court. A raft of reform measures was approved by 335 lawmakers, 35 more than needed to change the constitution.

The co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of Ukraine, Jordi Xuclà (Spain, ALDE) and Axel Fischer (Germany, EPP/CD), warmly welcomed yesterday’s adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of the Constitutional amendments regarding the judiciary. “As we have repeatedly stressed on previous occasions, these amendments are a crucial prerequisite for the successful implementation of the reforms of the judiciary and justice system with a view to guaranteeing its efficiency and above all CoE anti-corruption digest 8 June 2016 independence.”

Ukraine’s newly established National Anti-Corruption Bureau has begun identification of the persons mentioned in the so-called “black accounting documents” of pro-Yanukovych Party of Regions. As was reported earlier, on May 30, the NABU launched an investigation at the request of the former first deputy chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine Viktor Trepak.