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Group of States against Corruption
The Group of States against Corruption (French: groupe d'États contre la corruption, GRECO) is the Council of Europe's anti-corruption monitoring body with its headquarters in Strasbourg (France). It was established in 1999 as an enlarged partial agreement by 17 Council of Europe member states.
GRECO, which is also open to non-European states, currently has 49 members (47 European states, Kazakhstan and the United States of America). Since August 2010, all Council of Europe members have been members of GRECO. Membership in GRECO is not limited to Council of Europe member states, any state which took part in the elaboration of the enlarged partial agreement, may join by notifying the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. Moreover, any state which becomes party to Council of Europe's Criminal or Civil Law Conventions on Corruption automatically accedes to GRECO and its evaluation procedures. While all its member states are GRECO members, the European Union itself is not, but it became an observer in 2019. In May 2024, the GRECO called on European Union institutions to become full members, the GRECO's president saying that it's "a question of will".
The GRECO Secretariat is located in the Council of Europe's "Agora" building completed in 2008.
Of GRECO's 2019 recommendations, Serbia, Turkey and Slovakia did not fully implement any of them while Norway was scored best. Recommendations related to reducing corruption among MPs were least implemented (27 percent). GRECO's president stated in a press release, "This explains to a large extent why people's trust in politics is very low and will be even lower if politicians don't step up their compliance with integrity standards".
GRECO's objective is to improve the capacity of its members to fight corruption by monitoring their compliance with Council of Europe anti-corruption standards through a dynamic process of mutual evaluation and peer pressure. It helps to identify deficiencies in national anti-corruption policies, with a view to prompting the necessary legislative, institutional and practical reforms. GRECO does not have a mandate to measure the occurrence of corrupt practices in its individual member States. Other organisations/bodies are better equipped to deal with this important matter. A widely known example is Transparency International (TI), which issues annually a Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) - ranking more than 150 countries according to perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys and other specialised reports such as Global Corruption Barometer and Bribe Payers Index.
The OECD, the United Nations, ICPO-Interpol, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank were associated with the preparatory work leading to the establishment of GRECO. The need for efficient monitoring mechanisms in this area was widely accepted by these organisations which contributed to discussions held under the aegis of the Council of Europe which eventually led to the establishment of GRECO.
GRECO monitoring comprises an evaluation procedure based largely on information gathered via questionnaires and on-site visits and a compliance procedure designed to assess the measures subsequently taken by its members to implement the recommendations emanating from GRECO's evaluations. On-site visits include meeting with numerous interlocutors, government officials, civil society representatives, academics, etc.
The themes and provisions to be evaluated within an evaluation round are decided on by GRECO. Members are called upon to implement the recommendations issued by GRECO within a period of 18 months. The ensuing compliance procedure assesses the implementation of each individual recommendation and establishes an overall appraisal of the level of a member's compliance.
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Group of States against Corruption
The Group of States against Corruption (French: groupe d'États contre la corruption, GRECO) is the Council of Europe's anti-corruption monitoring body with its headquarters in Strasbourg (France). It was established in 1999 as an enlarged partial agreement by 17 Council of Europe member states.
GRECO, which is also open to non-European states, currently has 49 members (47 European states, Kazakhstan and the United States of America). Since August 2010, all Council of Europe members have been members of GRECO. Membership in GRECO is not limited to Council of Europe member states, any state which took part in the elaboration of the enlarged partial agreement, may join by notifying the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. Moreover, any state which becomes party to Council of Europe's Criminal or Civil Law Conventions on Corruption automatically accedes to GRECO and its evaluation procedures. While all its member states are GRECO members, the European Union itself is not, but it became an observer in 2019. In May 2024, the GRECO called on European Union institutions to become full members, the GRECO's president saying that it's "a question of will".
The GRECO Secretariat is located in the Council of Europe's "Agora" building completed in 2008.
Of GRECO's 2019 recommendations, Serbia, Turkey and Slovakia did not fully implement any of them while Norway was scored best. Recommendations related to reducing corruption among MPs were least implemented (27 percent). GRECO's president stated in a press release, "This explains to a large extent why people's trust in politics is very low and will be even lower if politicians don't step up their compliance with integrity standards".
GRECO's objective is to improve the capacity of its members to fight corruption by monitoring their compliance with Council of Europe anti-corruption standards through a dynamic process of mutual evaluation and peer pressure. It helps to identify deficiencies in national anti-corruption policies, with a view to prompting the necessary legislative, institutional and practical reforms. GRECO does not have a mandate to measure the occurrence of corrupt practices in its individual member States. Other organisations/bodies are better equipped to deal with this important matter. A widely known example is Transparency International (TI), which issues annually a Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) - ranking more than 150 countries according to perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys and other specialised reports such as Global Corruption Barometer and Bribe Payers Index.
The OECD, the United Nations, ICPO-Interpol, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank were associated with the preparatory work leading to the establishment of GRECO. The need for efficient monitoring mechanisms in this area was widely accepted by these organisations which contributed to discussions held under the aegis of the Council of Europe which eventually led to the establishment of GRECO.
GRECO monitoring comprises an evaluation procedure based largely on information gathered via questionnaires and on-site visits and a compliance procedure designed to assess the measures subsequently taken by its members to implement the recommendations emanating from GRECO's evaluations. On-site visits include meeting with numerous interlocutors, government officials, civil society representatives, academics, etc.
The themes and provisions to be evaluated within an evaluation round are decided on by GRECO. Members are called upon to implement the recommendations issued by GRECO within a period of 18 months. The ensuing compliance procedure assesses the implementation of each individual recommendation and establishes an overall appraisal of the level of a member's compliance.