The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) publishes its Third Round Evaluation Report on the Slovak Republic

The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has published its Third Round Evaluation Report (*) on the Slovak Republic. The report, which was adopted on 15 February 2008, has been made public following the agreement of the Slovak authorities. It focuses on two distinct themes: criminalisation of corruption and transparency of party funding.

Regarding the criminalisation of corruption [link: http://www.coe.int/t/dg1/Greco/evaluations/round3/GrecoEval3(2007)4_Slovakia_One_EN.pdf], GRECO criticises the complex and cumbersome nature of Slovakia’s legal provisions dealing with corruption. GRECO emphasises, inter alia, that the offence of bribery of public officials should also include situations in which there is neither a breach of duty nor ‘procurement of a thing of general interest’ and calls upon the Slovak authorities to ensure that the criminalisation of bribery of foreign public officials, arbitrators and jurors is fully in line with the Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173) and the Additional Protocol (ETS 191) thereto.

Concerning transparency of party funding [link: http://www.coe.int/t/dg1/Greco/evaluations/round3/GrecoEval3(2007)4_Slovakia_Two_EN.pdf], GRECO stresses that the legal regulations in this area are to a large extent in line with the relevant standards of the Council of Europe. Nevertheless, GRECO identifies a number of shortcomings: amongst others, the expenditure incurred by individual candidates in election campaigns is inadequately regulated and the supervision of political parties’ compliance with the regulations is too fragmented and formalistic. Moreover, GRECO concludes that the legal regulations on party and election campaign funding are not effectively enforced.

The report as a whole addresses 16 recommendations to the Slovak Republic. GRECO will assess the implementation of these recommendations towards the end of 2009, through its specific compliance procedure.

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(*) The two themes are (1) the criminalisation of corruption in accordance with the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173) and its Additional Protocol (ETS 191); and (2) transparency of party funding in light of the Council of Europe Recommendation Rec(2003)4 on Common Rules against Corruption in the Funding of Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns.