1. Anti-corruption initiatives of the Council of Europe member states General competence in the 1949 statutes (except defense / military) Ex: 1982: Recommendation on combating economic crime (ref to corruption) Decreasing importance of economic and political cooperation (complementarity i.a. with EC, OECD, OSCE, UN) – focus on areas of legal, social, cultural affairs and human rights (ECHR) 1990s: political change in Europe; crisis of ideologies: new dimension of Democracy, Human Rights, Rule of Law adapting to new membership (Montenegro: May 2007, State Union with Serbia joined in 2003): inclusion,not exclusion new standards, monitoring, technical cooperation

2.  New anti-corruption standards General discussion in the CoE, EC/EU, OECD, but also OAS, AU; 1994 conference of CoE Ministers of Justice in Valetta, Malta) 1996: Programme of action against Corruption: global approach, inventory of policy aspects + priorities Results: one general Resolution in 1997 on general anti- corruption policy elements, two Conventions in 1999 on criminal and civil law aspects of the fight against corruption (+ 2003 Protocol), one recommendation in 2000 on ethical standards, one recommendation in 2003 on political financing After the union of states with Serbia, Montenegro has ratified both Conventions (2006 and 2008) and the Protocol (2008).

3. Council of Europe anti-corruption instruments 1: Resolution 97(24) of the Committee of Ministers on the 20 guiding principles for the fight against corruption: a document that summarises some of the main elements for anti-corruption policies by the government: preventive aspects (research and awareness-raising, ethics and conflicts of interest, public procurement, political immunities...), repressive aspects (incriminations, need to target proceeds of corruption, independence/specialisation and means of AC bodies...) 2. The Criminal Law Convention on corruption (1999): criminalises bribery of domestic and foreign officials and elected representatives, members of international institutions (organisations and courts), bribery in the private sector, trading in influence; chapter on international cooperation. Protocol of 2003 extends legal protection to arbitrators and jurors

4. Council of Europe anti-corruption instruments (cont.) 3: Civil Law Convention on Corruption (1999): effective remedies for victims of corruption, contracts affected by bribery to be void, protection of public and private employees who report suspicions of corruption (whistleblowers)... 4. Recommendation R(2000)10 of the Committee of Ministers to Member states on codes of conduct for public officials – includes a model code of conduct: professionalism and impartiality, how officials should react to situations of corruption and gifts/advantages, they should avoid getting involved in bribery/conflicts of interest/incompatibilities, should not be perceived as susceptible to corruption... Does not deal with elected officials but under Resolution of 1997, countries sould adopt similar rules for elected officials

5. Council of Europe anti-corruption instruments (cont.) 5: Recommendation R(2003)4 of the Committee of Ministers to Member states on common rules against corruption in the financing of political parties and electoral campaigns; liberal model: public and private financing, donations by legal and natural persons; due dilligence required for foreign donations; importance of transparency (registration of donations in the party and legal persons' books, publication of party accounts and identification of important donors; applicability also to election campaigns; control by a body sufficiently independent from the parties and campaign participants; specialisation of authorities; sanctions should exist and be dissusasive, proportionate and effective

6. Monitoring: the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) Established in 1999 by a partial, enlarged agreement (treaty) as a result of the 1996 Programme of Action Task: evaluate how countries implement all instruments (hard law and soft law); system of evaluation rounds Accession to GRECO through ratification of the agreement or automatically through ratification of one of the 2 conventions; Montenegro joined in June 2006 (State Union with Serbia had joined in 2003); 47 countries to date Principle of mutual evaluations and peer pressure; on-site visits; evaluation reports contain recommendations for improvement; compliance procedure: 18+18 months Montenegro: evaluation report in 10/2006, compliance report in 12/2008; addendum by end 2010

7. Evaluation report on Montenegro 24 recommendations concerning: 1) general policies (AC policies given the extent of the problem, research on corruption, coordination between state bodies etc.) 2) independence, specialisation, legal and other means of AC authorities ; 3) proceeds of corruption (inclusion of corruption in the anti-money laundering preventive mechanisms, mechanisms for the seizure and confiscation) ; 4) transparency, control and functioning of the administration and anti- corruption measures for public officials (general obligations, regulations on gifts / conflict of interests / incompatibilities of functions etc.) 5) measures to ensure transparency of legal persons and their liability in case of corruption immunities a non-issue (controversies on that of judges + prosecutors)

8. Monitoring results (improvements) Improvements noted in 12/2008: AC strategy + action plan adopted (with monitoring established in 2007) awareness raising initiatives at all levels training for police and prosecutors (with support from international community), witness protection measures introduced, improvement of public procurement procedures, Training public employees on corruption prevention measures to implement the Law of 2005 on free access to information etc.

9. Monitoring results (outstanding matters) Further improvements expected by GRECO by the end of 2010: reform of the criminal justice system in the context of the new criminal procedure code: cooperation between police and prosecution, role of prosecutors and investigative judges, additional legal means in the context of investigations (early seizure of proceeds + special investigative means also for corruption cases); draft law on conflicts of interest needs to be adopted and extended to public officials more broadly; better rules on gifts and revolving doors needed; state audit needs to be able to send a case to prosecution; licensing and permit system needs further improvement.

10. Technical cooperation South-East European countries have received a lot of support since the late 1990s/early 2000s: multilateral regional initiatives or country-specific initiatives; under the CoE: several areas of action (legal reform in general to enshrine democracy and rule of law; functioning of the police and the judiciary / the prison system, improvement of social / labour legislation etc.) As regards corruption (programmes organised often in cooperation with the EC, OECD, UN, supporting countries): Octopus (since 1996) on combating the various forms of economic crime and organised crime, PACO-Impact (2004-2006) on the implementation of AC action plans, CARDS-Police (2005- 2007) on developping police capacities to deal with serious forms of crime, PACO-Proceeds (2006) to support policies and legislation on the targeting of proceeds of crime, Proseco (2006- 2008) to support the Prosecutor's network in South-Eastern Europe (see www.coe.int/economiccrime)

11. Thank you for your attention! For further information www.coe.int/greco christophe.speckbacher@coe.int