Decision (EU) 2019/1086 on the position to be taken as regards the decision on granting the Union observer status in the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO)

Summary:

Council Decision of 18 June 2019 establishing the position to be taken on behalf of the Union regarding the EU's request to participate as an observer in GRECO.

Further information:

The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) was established in 1999 by the Council of Europe to monitor States’ compliance with the anti-corruption standards set out in the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and the Civil Law Convention on Corruption. GRECO currently has 49 full members, including all EU Member States, and 10 observers.

GRECO’s objective is to improve the capacity of its members to fight corruption by monitoring their compliance with Council of Europe’s anti-corruption standards through a dynamic process of mutual evaluation and peer pressure. Through a system of evaluations it helps to identify deficiencies in national anti-corruption policies, prompting the necessary legislative, institutional and practical reforms.

The EU’s participation in GRECO has been a priority for cooperation between the European Union and the Council of Europe. While the EU has been cooperating with the Council of Europe on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding agreed in 2007, GRECO is one of the few bodies of the Council of Europe with which the EU has no dedicated legal framework of cooperation.

On 6 June 2019, the European Commission submitted to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe the EU's request to become observer. The EU seeking now to become an observer in GRECO does not preclude other possible forms of participation in the future, including full membership.

GRECO is expected to decide on the Union's observer status at its 83rd Plenary Meeting in Strasbourg on 17-21 June 2019. If the decision is not adopted at the 83rd Plenary Meeting or at the subsequent Plenary Meeting, it is expected that the matter will be referred to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

EUR-Lex: COM(2019)273: Proposal for a Decision on the position to be taken in the 83rd Plenary Meeting of the Group of States against Corruption as regards the participation of the European Union as observer in GRECO https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2019:273:FIN

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