Written declaration No. 677 | Doc. 14918 | 24 June 2019
Investigating and preventing corruption at the Council of Europe
We, the undersigned, declare the following:
In 2017, the Council of Europe was shaken by a huge corruption scandal. Italian prosecutors had discovered that a former Parliamentary Assembly member had received almost 2.4 million euros from an Azerbaijani Assembly member.
The Assembly commissioned an external investigation which concluded that “there was a strong suspicion that certain current and former members of PACE had engaged in activity of a corruptive nature.” The Assembly banned 15 former members for life from access to the Assembly premises. It also strengthened its ethical framework.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the Committee of Ministers did not investigate into the behaviour of Azerbaijan, accused of having directed the corruptive actions.
Before the election of the new Secretary General, both candidates should commit to:
- initiating independent external investigations into possible corruption conducted by any state and state-linked actors in all Council of Europe institutions over the last ten years;
- submitting to the Committee of Ministers and the Assembly a proposal on a well financed mechanism that will allow for quick and automatic investigations in cases of serious allegations of corruption in all parts of the Organisation in the future;
- implementing a secure whistleblowing procedure at the Council of Europe that will support and protect individuals who expose illegal or unethical practices.