Cyprus has not fully complied with any Greco recommendation

Cyprus was among countries that have not fully complied with any of the recommendations of the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (Greco) regarding corruption prevention, a report said on Tuesday.

According to Greco’s annual report, which reviews action taken by its 49 member states against corruption, in 2018 in respect of MPs, judges and prosecutors and its most recent evaluation round focusing on preventing corruption in central government and law enforcement agencies, Cyprus, that has 14 non-implemented or only partially implemented recommendations, is among the countries with the highest number of pending cases.

Turkey was the first with 33, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina at 23, Greece with 19 and Armenia, Belgium, North Macedonia and Serbia with 17 each.

Cyprus was also among the countries with the highest number of non-implemented recommendations in respect of parliamentarians and among the 16 countries which had not yet fully complied with any of Greco’s recommendations in respect of MPs.

According to the report, Cyprus was also among 10 countries that had not yet fully complied with any of Greco’s recommendations in respect of judges.

Nearly all Greco member states have been evaluated under the 4th evaluation round, which focuses on preventing corruption among parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors.

Overall, the implementation of Greco recommendations slowed down in 2018, the report said as only 34 per cent of recommendations had been fully implemented by the end of the year. The lowest level of compliance concerned recommendations in respect of parliamentarians while it was higher for those concerning judges and prosecutors, it said.

In a compliance report published last September on the recommendations issued in the Fourth Round Evaluation Report on Cyprus, Greco had recommended that a code of ethics/conduct for members of parliament – including their staff – be adopted, covering various situations of conflicts of interest, such as gifts and other advantages, third-party contacts and lobbyists.

For judges, Greco had recommended that the composition of the Supreme Council of Judicature be subject to a reflection process considering its representation within the judiciary.

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