CoE's GRECO President Kos to EuroFora on EU deal : No 3 levels of fight against Corruption in Europe

Before a crucial EU-CoE Brussels Meeting next Friday, the President of PanEuropean CoE's Anti-Corruption Watchdog GRECO, the experienced Drago Kos of Slovenia, speaking to "EuroFora" , stressed his openess to any kind of cooperation with EU Commission, excluding only a "duplication of the Monitoring" process, in order to avoid splitting Europe in 3 Parts", with "differend Levels of Anti-Corruption Standards".

He spoke at the conclusion of the 50th Plenary weekly Session of GRECO at the CoE in Strasbourg, with all its "49 Members"-strong, experienced PanEuropean anti-Corruption body, which includes, in addition to the 27 EU Countries, also other CoE Member States (such as Ukraine, Russia, Azerbaidzan, Turkey, etc), and "even Belarus",  as he observed.

- EU Commission and COE have already prepared Papers with suggestions on how to cooperate in the common fight against Corruption in future, and we (GRECO) discussed the issue this week in Strasbourg, and we got some important decisions, President Kos told "EuroFora".

- The main point is that we (CoE) are very much in favour of cooperation with the EU, but, at any case, we don't like to see duplication by another, full-fledged Monitoring Mechanism, he stressed.

- This would be "Bad for whole Europe",  because "it could Split into 3 Parts", as far as "Anti-Corruption Standards" concerned, GRECO's President warned. : I.e. in a group of EU Member States, in another group for CoE Countries which are not EU Members, and even a third group with some Countries who are not yet CoE Member States, f.ex. Belarus, as well as various other 3rd Countries in regions included in Europe's "Neighbourhood policy", etc. But, "that would be "Devastating" : If you have Differend Levels of (Anti-Corruption) Standards for various States, then, you cannot have good results" in the overall fight against Corruption, Kos concluded.

- In this framework, the idea for EU to accede into GRECO "is, indeed, one of the Possibilities", Kos admitted. - "This is part of EU's Stockholm prohram", on Justice, Home Affairs, and "we (COE) are very much open to discuss everything with EU Commission, including, f.ex. EU's eventual accession to GRECO, etc., anything, except only from another, duplicating Monitoring, he reiterated.

- Such a move seems supported also by CoE's Deputy Secretary General, Mrs Maud de Boehr-Buquicchio, who, speaking earlier in Strasbourg, at the opening of GRECO's weekly Session, pointed out that "EU's active participation in GRECO would create significant added value, by combining GRECO’s extensive Monitoring expertise, with EU's Political leverage, to the benefit of the fight against corruption. ....A New Dynamic might also be brought to Priorities for Future monitoring and implementation support", she added.

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Meanwhile, GRECO adopted this week in Strasbourg 10 Reports on  Moldova, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Andorra, Albania, Norway, Sweden, Spain and France, as well as Luxembourg, which, according to the established rules, will be published soon, according to agreements made with each Government.

GRECO also prepared to launch a "New Round" of Monitoring throughout its "49" Member States, (i.e. "including Belarus"), which will be focused, this time, on Corruption issues concerning "Judges and Prosecutors".

-"All this might take something like 4 Years to be completed everywhere, starting from January 2012", estimated Kos. Meanwhile, in addition to Governments' Replies to the Questionaire we've just prepared, and to CoE Experts' Visits on the spot, we want input in order to have as much as possible information  also from Civil Society : NGOs, Media, Business, Lawyers, Academia, etc., Drago Kos anounced. "Every bit of information should be send to GRECO's Secretariat", (headed by the experienced Wolfgang Rau).