Council of Europe Conventions on Corruption

The Council of Europe Conventions on Corruption


The Council of Europe has two binding policies against corruption:

First, the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption was adopted in 1998 and represents a regional consensus on what states should do in the areas of criminalisation and international cooperation with respect to corruption. The convention covers the public sector and private sector corruption and a broad range of offences including bribery (domestic and foreign), trading in influence, money laundering and accounting offences.

Second, the Civil Law Convention on Corruption was adopted in 1998 and came into force in 2003. It provides for compensation for damages resulting from corruption, invalidity of corrupt contracts and whistleblower protection.



GRECO

Aside from the Council of Europe's two binding policies, the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) is also an important institution in the fight against corruption. GRECO was established in 1999 by the Council of Europe to monitor states' compliance with the organisation's anti-corruption standards. Its objective is to improve its members' capacity to fight corruption by Council of Europe anti-corruption standards compliance monitoring through a dynamic process of mutual evaluation and peer pressure. GRECO aims at identifying deficiencies in national anti-corruption policies in order to prompt the necessary legislative, institutional and practical reforms. It also provides a platform for the sharing of best practice in the prevention and detection of corruption. Currently, GRECO comprises 46 member States (45 European States and the United States of America).