Countries in SE Europe have made considerable progress in fighting corruption, but should further intensify their efforts. In doing so, they can count on help of the Group of State Against Corruption (GRECO), GRECO president Drago Kos has stressed.
Kos, who is also head of the Slovenian Corruption Prevention Commission, told Thursday's ministerial in Brussels that Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Albania had taken major anti-corruption measures over the past 18 months.
These countries accepted corruption as a problem and have shown political will to fight it, something they are doing through specific measures, Kos stressed at the conference on coordinated measures for fighting corruption in SE Europe.
European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini stressed that the fight on corruption can only bear fruit if society as a whole takes measures against it. He moreover pointed to preventive measures such as transparency in public administration and the judiciary.
While SE Europe is one of the regions with most widespread corruption, the phenomenon is also a grave problem in Russia and China, observed John Markey of the US State Department.
Nevertheless, developed countries are not immune to it either, he observed, and gave Italy as an example where until recently corruption flourised due to links between the mafia, decision-makers and businesses.
Stressing that the situation in Italy has been changing of late, Markey highlighted the creation of an environment where taking bribes is not attractive, as a measure to go for.
It was stressed that SE European countries will upgrade their anti-corruption efforts towards creating such an environment.
The conference has been designed for justice ministers from Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovia, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia, and is expected to adopt a declaration on ten coordinated measures to combat corruption.
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