EU Statement at UNCAC's 15th session of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the Prevention of Corruption, 3 September 2024

Mr Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union (EU) and its Member States.

Mr Chair, in this statement, I would like to address a few issues on the prevention of corruption under agenda item 2.

Preventing corruption before it happens is always better than having to investigate and prosecute corruption after it occurred. This is why in the EU we have greatly stepped up our efforts in this field over the recent years.

Since 2022, the European Commission has included recommendations in the annual Rule of Law Reports how EU Member States can strengthen their institutions, laws and regulations to prevent corruption.

The EU public procurement system represents quite possibly the international gold standard, with clear and binding rules on publication, transparency, procedure and legal remedies that can be enforced before national and EU courts. At the last CoSP in Atlanta, one of our Member States, France, sponsored a resolution on "Promoting transparency and integrity in public procurement in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" that seeks to prevent corruption in accordance with article 9, paragraph 1, of the Convention.

In order to promote transparency, we have introduced a lobbying register and require EU Commissioners to publish their agendas so the public can see who they are meeting. To prevent conflicts of interest, we have also introduced cooling-off periods before EU officials can take on new jobs in the private sector.

For more transparency, EU Commissioners and top officials must declare their assets and interests which could also help to prevent conflicts of interest and corruption.

The European Commission helps EU countries to further improve systems for the prevention of corruption. For instance, as part of the EU Network Against Corruption, it recently organised a workshop in Brussels to exchange insights on the functioning, but also the challenges including around privacy rights, of asset declaration systems. Anti-corruption experts from EU countries gathered with civil society, international organisations, and academics to share experiences and potential solutions.

It was also explored how technologies can enhance the submission and verification of asset declarations, including trends in the use of IT tools for this purpose, artificial intelligence (AI) solutions and machine learning applications. These technological solutions can lead to a better allocation of resources and faster processing of asset declarations, and the European Commission has made available several forms of funding to support projects in this area.

The EU believes in transparency and sharing information with all stakeholders. As always, we have therefore published detailed minutes of this meeting on the website of the EU Network Against Corruption.

Thank you, Mr Chair.

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