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Ref. DC 096(2016) Council of Europe calls on Liechtenstein to ratify the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and to make political funding transparent Strasbourg, 02.06.2016 - The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) today called on Liechtenstein to ratify the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, to fully implement it, and to swiftly and substantially improve legislation on political funding. Liechtenstein joined the international anti-corruption efforts at a late stage and it is one of the four GRECO member states which, to date, has not ratified the Criminal Law Convention on corruption and its additional protocol. According to the report, the Criminal Code currently does not adequately cover bribery involving assembly members, foreign and international public officials and trading in influence involving public officials. As result, for instance, a parliamentarian or a local council member cannot be prosecuted for taking a bribe. At the same time, bribes are defined exclusively by reference to a financial value. Therefore, Liechtenstein needs to ensure that corruption involving favours and other intangible benefits can also be prosecuted. The sanctions should also be made more effective, proportionate and dissuasive. GRECO welcomes that ambitious amendments have already been prepared by the government in 2015 to address many of the above issues. Liechtenstein is also one of the very few GRECO members which have no arrangements in place on the transparency of political financing. The 1984 legislation on the public subsidisation of political parties does not regulate private support at all, nor are parties required to consolidate their accounts so as to include all related activities and entities. This law sets forth that annual financial statements should be submitted to the Government’s Financial Affairs Unit, which can subsequently order a specific audit by private firms, and that these statements be published: but these important arrangements are not applied in practice. Liechtenstein needs to fill the gaps and to establish a sufficiently independent supervisory mechanism. Obviously, the desirable improvements would need to also apply during election campaigns, says the report. In total, GRECO has made 20 recommendations for improvements and it will examine their implementation in the first half of 2018. Links to the report: Theme I / Theme II (See also the German versions Thema I / Thema II) * * * The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) is a Council of Europe body that aims to improve the capacity of its members to fight corruption by monitoring their compliance with anti-corruption standards. It helps states to identify deficiencies in national anti-corruption policies, prompting the necessary legislative, institutional and practical reforms. Currently it comprises the 47 Council of Europe member states, Belarus and the United States of America. Contact : Estelle Steiner, Spokesperson/Press officer, tel. +33 3 88 41 33 35 |
