Council of Europe calls for greater effort to combat corruption

Greece needs to step up efforts to prevent corruption by lawmakers and judges and improve transparency of party financing, the Council of Europe said in two reports on Thursday.

A report by the Council’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) said Greece needed to do more to speed up procedures for the adoption of laws and rules for lifting lawmakers’ immunity, as the number of denials to lift immunity “significantly outweighed” approved requests.

It said more determined action was needed against delays in judicial proceedings, and recommended that Greece set clear standards of professional conduct and integrity for judges and prosecutors.

In a second report on transparency of party financing, it criticized Greece for reintroducing a certain level of anonymity in donations, just two years after banning them completely.

Source: ekathimerini.com