Newsletter
Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum

Call on the Need for More Effective Anti-Corruption Policies

Call of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum
to national governments of Eastern Partnership and to the European Union
on the need for more effective anti-corruption policies

Acknowledging that corruption is a systemic phenomenon in Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries that has damaging impact on economic, social and democratic development;

Recognizing that it creates serious obstacles for European integration of EaP states; and

Admitting that certain steps have already been taken by EaP governments in order to combat corruption;

Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum expresses its deep concern with the slow progress in fighting corruption and assesses it to be a consequence of the lack of genuine political will.

Analyzing common trends in EaP countries we identify the following major challenges that require urgent action:

  1. Widespread political corruption, reflected in biased legislation, selective enforcement, and electoral processes which are not free and fair;
  2. Impunity of high level officials engaged in corruption;
  3. Lack or inadequate enforcement of conflict of interest policies;
  4. Weakness and political dependence of anti-corruption bodies (such as anti-corruption councils, monitoring committees, etc.); and
  5. Lack of transparency and accountability of public institutions, and non-participatory decision-making processes.

We call for endorsement of effective anti-corruption mechanisms and implementation of international obligations, including the Open Government Partnership commitments.

We also call the European Union and other international organizations to encourage anti-corruption reforms of EaP states through a special requirement for transparent and accountable governance within the “more for more” conditionality principle, particularly promoting the public scrutiny of international assistance funding. 


Project funded by the European UnionEU