A4-0365/96

Resolution on the draft Council Act drawing up the Convention on the fight against corruption involving officials of the European Communities or officials of Member States of the European Union (7751/96 - C4-0564/96 - 96/0911(CNS))

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the draft Council Act, 7751/96 - 96/0911(CNS),

- having been consulted by the Council pursuant to Article K.6, second paragraph, of the Treaty on European Union (C4-0564/96),

- having regard to Rule 93 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to its opinion of 22 May 1996 on the draft Council Act drawing up the Protocol to the Convention on the protection of the Communities' financial interests and draft protocol, drawn up on the basis of Article K.3 of the Treaty on European Union, to the Convention on the Protection of the European Communities' financial interests (officials and Members) ((OJ C 166, 10.6.1996, p. 92.)),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs (A4-0365/96),

1. Is of the opinion that separate legal acts on similar subjects (first additional protocol to the Convention on the protection of the Communities' financial interests, on the one hand, and the Convention on the fight against corruption, on the other) are a source of confusion, thereby making it difficult to achieve the objective of effectively uncovering and prosecuting acts of bribery and corruption in the European Union;

2. Regrets that the Council has not taken up the proposal made in paragraph 8 of Parliament's resolution of 19 September 1996 on the Convention for the protection of the European Communities' financial interests ((Minutes of that Sitting, Part II, Item 17(c).)) that the first additional protocol and the Convention on the fight against corruption should be combined in a single document;

3. Regrets, furthermore, that the Council has taken virtually no notice of Parliament's abovementioned opinion on the first additional protocol;

4. Continues to support - particularly in the light of the fact that corruption and organized crime are closely related - the underlying objective of the draft, which is to take more effective action against corruption in the European Union by incorporating general minimum standards of criminal law in the legal systems of the Member States and by fostering closer cooperation between different Member States;

5. Approves the draft Council Act subject to the following amendments:

(a) incorporation of the extended definition in the Annex of 'Community official' in the text of Article 1; for the purpose of clarification the bodies in question should be listed (European Investment Bank, European System of Central Banks, European Monetary Institute, European Investment Fund etc.);

(b) extension of the scope of the last paragraph in Article 2 to include active corruption (the paragraph only covers passive corruption - corruptibility - of an official of another Member State);

(c) introduction of a category of offence for passive and active corruption which is organized or repeated or committed on a large scale with more serious legal consequences;

(d) introduction of an explicit reference to the fact that aiding and abetting, incitement or attempted corruption are equivalent to passive corruption and active corruption;

(e) inclusion of the Ombudsman in the list of decision-makers in Article 4(1);

(f) extension of the 'ne bis in idem' principle of Article 10 to the (frequent) case where, although a sentence has been imposed the (remainder of the) sentence has been suspended on probation (the article only covers cases where a person may not be prosecuted or the penalty is in the process of being enforced or can no longer be enforced);

(g) inclusion of the competence of the Court of Justice of the European Communities for requests for preliminary decisions (in addition to the competence already contained in the text for interpretation and application of this Convention), whereby as a general principle the Member States not involved in the case and the Commission are granted the right to make observations;

(h) introduction of monitoring of transposition three years after the signing of the Convention in order to be able to evaluate its effectiveness in practice in the Member States;

6. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.