GRECO is an anti-corruption monitoring body established by the Council of Europe in 1999 to assist its members in improving the mechanisms for fighting corruption.
GRECO may have among its members not only the Council of Europe’s member states, but any other countries. In addition, a country that ratified the Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and/or Civil Law Convention on Corruption automatically joins GRECO and its evaluation mechanism. As of today, GRECO counts 49 member states. At present, Russia is not a member of the organization.
The Bureau is GRECO’s highest executive body. It is run by the President. The President, the Vice-President and the members of the Bureau are elected in its plenary meeting for a two-year term. The incumbent President is Marin Mrčela from Croatia.
GRECO is headquartered in Strasbourg. Its plenary meetings and the meetings of the Bureau are held four times a year.
GRECO’s activities are primarily focused on the implementation of the two anti-corruption conventions of the Council of Europe: the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and the Civil Law Convention on Corruption. In accordance with the Statute of GRECO, any country that has signed or ratified at least one of these conventions automatically becomes a member of the body and makes the commitment to participating in the GRECO evaluation procedures.
The Criminal Law Convention on Corruption is ratified by 46 countries, meanwhile 2 countries have signed but not ratified it yet. The Civil Law Convention on Corruption is ratified by 34 countries, 7 other countries have signed but nor ratified it yet.
In addition to the conventions GRECO seeks to ensure the implementation of a number of other anti-corruption documents, such as the Twenty Guiding Principles on the Fight against Corruption.
The GRECO evaluation procedure consists of several stages or rounds. Each round is focused on a specific topic.
The evaluation within each round includes two stages. In the framework of the first stage the evaluated country fills in a model questionnaire that provides general information on the implementation of specific anti-corruption measures. After that GRECO organizes an on-site visit of an evaluation team to the evaluated country. In the course of the visit the team meets representatives of national competent authorities. After the visit the team prepares a draft report containing, among other things, recommendations on the elimination of the detected flaws. The draft report is discussed, amended and adopted in a GRECO plenary meeting.
In the framework of the second stage the implementation of the recommendations is monitored. 18 months after that the evaluated country submits to GRECO a report where it outlines the measures that have been adopted in order to implement each recommendation. If the recommendations are not fully implemented, GRECO makes an additional assessment within the following 18 months. The states that deliver unsatisfactory results in the implementation of recommendations can be subject to a resolution of non-compliance.
The evaluation reports for all countries are available here.
