EU report to assess anti-corruption enforcement measures

Members of the Parliament (MEPs) backed the European Commission's plans to set up the EU Anti-Corruption Report. A first report into how EU countries use existing anti-corruption laws and enforcement methods is due to be delivered in 2013 and further reports will be published every two years.

Some MEPs would like the EU Anti-Corruption Report to be submitted earlier or in interim fashion "focussing on the biggest problems", the Parliament said in a statement.

MEPs said the EU Anti Corruption Report would "monitor and assess member state efforts to fight corruption and to encourage more political engagement," the statement said.

The Commission wrote to the Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers in June detailing how it would manage the assessment as part of wider recommendations on how to fight corruption in the EU.

The Commission said the evaluation would "create an additional impetus" for EU countries to "tackle corruption effectively, notably by implementing and enforcing internationally agreed anticorruption standards".

"The mechanism, applicable equally to all Member States, will provide a clearer overview of the existence and effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts in the EU, help identify specific causes of corruption, and thus provide grounds for sound preparation of future EU policy actions," the European Commission said in a report (18-page / 115KB PDF) at the time.

"It will moreover act as a 'crisis alert' to mitigate the potential risks of deeply-rooted problems which could evolve into a crisis," the Commission said.

The EU economy loses €120bn to corruption each year, the European Parliament statement said.

Improved anti-corruption measures are needed to provide "better protection for whistleblowers, faster investigations", whilst there is also a "need to smooth out differences across the EU in how bribery by multinationals of state officials in third countries is treated," MEPs have said, according to the statement.

The Parliament said that the Commission is due to recommend "a series of other measures" to combat corruption, including "proposals for new rules on confiscating criminal assets".

The European Parliament will ask the Commission and the Council of Ministers on 14 September about how to "ensure" the political backing of all EU countries to tackle corruption. New EU laws can only be passed following approval by both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers.

In the UK new anti-corruption laws came into force in July. Under the Bribery Act it is an offence if a person requests, agrees to receive, or accepts an advantage, financial or otherwise, with the intention that they or someone else perform a "relevant function or activity" improperly.

Under the Act, the maximum penalty for individuals found guilty of bribery is 10 years' imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

In addition to creating new obligations for companies to have anti-corruption policies in place, the Act also creates the offence of bribing a foreign public official, even if that person has demanded a bribe.

UK companies and partnerships could be breaking the law no matter where the alleged acts of bribery take place. Foreign companies which operate in the UK could also face prosecution regardless of where the alleged bribery has taken place, unless the suspect activities are permitted locally.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is the lead agency for investigating and prosecuting offences under the Bribery Act.