Proposal for a COUNCIL DECISION on the position to be taken, on behalf of the European Union, in the 83rd Plenary Meeting of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) as regards the participation of the European Union as observer in GRECO
Date: 2019-06-06
Institutions: Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission
Subjects: corruption, international agreement, international organisation, observer, the EU's international role

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 6.6.2019  COM(2019) 273 final 2019/0135 (NLE)  Proposal for a COUNCIL DECISION on the position to be taken, on behalf of the European Union, in the 83rd Plenary Meeting of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) as regards the participation of the European Union as observer in GRECO  
 
 
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 

1. 

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE PROPOSAL 

This  proposal  concerns  the  decision  establishing  the  position  to  be  taken  on  behalf  of  the 
European Union in the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) in connection with the 
envisaged adoption of a decision concerning the observer status of the European Union. 

2. 

CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 

GRECO  was  established  in  1999  by  the  Council  of  Europe  to  monitor  States’  compliance 
with the anti-corruption standards set out in the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and 
the Civil Law Convention on Corruption. GRECO’s objective is to improve the capacity of its 
members to  fight  corruption by monitoring  their  compliance with  Council  of Europe’s  anti-
corruption  standards  through  a  dynamic  process  of  mutual  evaluation  and  peer  pressure. 
Through  a  system  of  evaluations  it  helps  to  identify  deficiencies  in  national  anti-corruption 
policies, prompting the necessary legislative, institutional and practical reforms. 

GRECO currently has 49 full members1 and 10 observers2. 

The EU’s participation in GRECO has been a priority for cooperation between the European 
Union  and  the  Council  of  Europe.  While  the  EU  has  been  cooperating  with  the  Council  of 
Europe on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding agreed in 20073, GRECO is one of 
the few bodies of the Council of Europe with which the EU has no dedicated legal framework 
of cooperation. The EU is not present in GRECO meetings, and opportunities for exchanging 
views with  GRECO and its members and cooperating on matters of common  interest  in  the 
area of rule of law and the fight against corruption are therefore very limited.  

In  2011,  the  Commission  defined  the  main  objectives  of  strengthened  cooperation  between 
the EU and GRECO and analysed possible ways for the EU to participate in GRECO’s work 
and  the  benefits  this  would  bring4.  This  was  followed  in  2012  by  a  Commission 

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Albania,  Andorra,  Armenia,  Austria,  Azerbaijan,  Belarus,  Belgium,  Bosnia-Herzegovina,  Bulgaria, 
Croatia,  Cyprus,  Czechia,  Denmark,  Estonia,  Finland,  France,  Georgia,  Germany,  Greece,  Hungary, 
Iceland,  Ireland,  Italy,  Latvia,  Liechtenstein,  Lithuania,  Luxembourg,  Malta,  Moldova,  Monaco, 
Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, 
Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United 
States of America. 
Four Council of Europe bodies, namely the Parliamentary Assembly, the European Committee on Legal 
Co-operation (CDCJ), the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC), and the Council of Europe 
Development Bank (CEB); the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); the 
United Nations, represented by  the United Nations Office  on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Office 
for  Democratic  Institutions  and  Human  Rights  (ODIHR)  of  the  Organisation  for  Security  and 
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA); the International 
Institute  for  Democracy  and  Electoral  Assistance  (IDEA),  and  the  Organisation  of  American  States 
(OAS). 
CM(2007)74, adopted on 10 May 2007 by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. 
COM(2011)307 final. 

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Communication5  setting  out  a  two-step  approach  for  the  EU’s  accession  to  GRECO  that 
implied full participant status6 in a first stage and full membership status in a second stage.  

The European Parliament expressed continuous support to the EU’s participation in GRECO 
through  numerous  reports  and  resolutions,  such  as  the  2016  resolution  on  the  fight  against 
corruption  and  follow-up  of  the  2015  resolution  on  organised  crime,  corruption  and  money 
laundering, and also in a debate in Plenary in 2018. 

On 20 March 2019, the Executive Director of GRECO sent  a letter to the Presidency of the 
Council,  suggesting  to  consider  the  EU  becoming  an  observer  in  GRECO.  The  observer 
status  would  allow  the  EU  to  participate  in  GRECO  meetings  and  have  access  to  all 
documents discussed. As an observer, the EU would not have the right to vote, not be subject 
to  evaluation  and  would  not  take  formal  position  in  evaluation  processes  or  participate  in 
evaluation missions. There is no financial contribution requested from observers. It should be 
noted that the rules are the same for every observer. 

Under Article 220 TFEU, the Union establishes all appropriate forms of cooperation with the 
organs  of  the  United  Nations  and  its  specialised  agencies,  the  Council  of  Europe,  the 
Organisation  for  Security  and  Cooperation  in  Europe  and  the  Organisation  for  Economic 
Cooperation and Development. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and 
Security Policy and the Commission shall implement this Article. The Commission officially 
informed the European Parliament and the Council of its intention to seek observer status in 
GRECO for the European Union. The Council expressed its support for the Union to become 
an observer in GRECO at its meeting of 6 June 2019. 

On 6 June 2019, the Commission submitted to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe 
the EU request to become observer7. 

The  EU  seeking  now  to  become  an  observer  in  GRECO  does  not  preclude  other  possible 
forms of participation in the future, including full membership. 

The GRECO Plenary is likely to consider the EU request at its meeting on 17-21 June 2019. It 
shall decide by unanimous decision. If unanimity is not reached in the Plenary, the matter may 
be referred to the Committee of Ministers which will decide by a two-thirds majority of all its 
representatives. All Member States of the EU are members of GRECO and will participate in 
the decision to be taken on granting the EU observer status in GRECO.  

Member States are under an obligation to support the request in accordance with the principle 
of  loyal  cooperation.  The  Commission  has  nonetheless  decided  on  this  occasion  to  make  a 
proposal  based  on  Article  218(9)  TFEU.  This  will  ensure  with  even  more  certainty  that  the 
EU  Member  States  speak  with  one  voice  in  support  of  the  EU  being  granted  the  observer 
status  at  the  GRECO  Plenary  Meeting  and,  if  needed,  at  the  subsequent  meeting  of  the 
Committee of Ministers.  

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COM(2012)604 final. 
The  full  participant  status  would  imply  that  the  European  Union  would  not  be  subject  to  the  mutual 
evaluation system, would not enjoy any voting rights, and would not be able to send a representative to 
GRECO’s  Bureau;  a  certain  involvement  of  the  European  Union  in  the  evaluation  system  was  also 
foreseen. 
Under the Council of Europe’s procedure, an organisation can be granted observer status in GRECO by 
addressing a  letter to the  Secretary  General of  the  Council of Europe  requesting  such a  status. See in 
particular Council of Europe Statutory Resolution No. (93) 28. 

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3. 

LEGAL BASIS 

The main objective of GRECO is to improve the capacity of its members to fight corruption. 
The legal basis of the proposed decision should therefore be Article 83 TFEU in conjunction 
with Article 218(9) TFEU. 

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2019/0135 (NLE) 

Proposal for a 

COUNCIL DECISION 

on the position to be taken, on behalf of the European Union, in the 83rd Plenary 
Meeting of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) as regards the 
participation of the European Union as observer in GRECO 

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 

Having  regard  to  the  Treaty  on  the  Functioning  of  the  European  Union,  and  in  particular 
Article 83 in conjunction with Article 218(9) thereof, 

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, 

Whereas: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

(5) 

(6) 

(7) 

(8) 

(9) 

The Council of Europe Statutory Resolution No. (93)28 provides for the possibility for 
non-member States and international organisations to become observers in partial and 
enlarged agreements such as the one establishing GRECO, 

On 6 June 2019, the Commission submitted to the Secretary-General of the Council of 
Europe a request for the Union’s participation in GRECO as an observer, 

The participation of the European Union in GRECO as an observer does not preclude 
its possible future participation in GRECO as a full member,  

All Member States of the European Union are members of GRECO, 

It is expected that the GRECO Plenary will be called upon to decide on the European 
Union’s  observer  status  at  the  83rd  Plenary  Meeting  of  GRECO  (Strasbourg,  17-
21 June 2019), 
If that decision is not  taken at the 83rd GRECO Plenary of 17-21 of June 2019 or at 
the subsequent GRECO Plenary Meeting, the Member States of the European Union 
should support that the matter be referred to the Committee of Ministers, where they 
should support admitting the EU as an observer to GRECO, 

It  is  therefore  appropriate  to  establish  the  position  to  be  taken  on  behalf  of  the 
European Union in relation to the adoption of the decision on the observer status of the 
European Union, 

This  decision  is  without  prejudice  to  the  principle  of  sincere  cooperation  and  the 
obligation  already  existing  on  all  Member  States  to  support  the  EU  request  for 
observer status, 

[In  accordance  with  Article  3  of  Protocol  No  21  on  the  position  of  the  United 
Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of freedom, security and justice, annexed 
to  the  Treaty  on  the  European  Union  and  to  the  Treaty  on  the  Functioning  of  the 
European  Union,  those  Member  States  have  notified  their  wish  to  take  part  in  the 
adoption and application of this Decision,] 

(10) 

[In accordance with Articles 1 and 2 of Protocol No 21 on the position of the United 
Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of freedom, security and justice, annexed 

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to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European 
Union,  and  without  prejudice  to  Article  4  of  that  Protocol,  those  Member  States  are 
not taking part in the adoption and application of this Decision and are not bound by it 
or subject to its application,] 

(11) 

[In  accordance  with  Articles  1  and  2  of  Protocol  No  22  on  the  position  of  Denmark 
annexed to the Treaty on the European Union and to the Treaty on the Functioning of 
the European Union, Denmark is not taking part in the adoption of this Decision and is 
not bound by it or subject to its application,] 

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:  

Article 1 
The position to be taken on behalf of the European Union in the 83rd Plenary Meeting of the 
Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) of 17-21 of June 2019 or, if necessary, in the 
subsequent Plenary Meeting, shall be the following: 

The Member States of the European Union shall support the adoption of the decision on the 
European Union becoming an observer to GRECO.  
If the decision is not taken at the 83rd GRECO Plenary Meeting of 17-21 of June 2019 or at 
the  subsequent  GRECO  Plenary  Meeting,  the  Member  States  of  the  European  Union  shall 
support  that  the  matter  be  referred  to  the  Committee  of  Ministers,  where  they  shall  support 
admitting the EU as an observer to GRECO. 

This Decision is addressed to the Member States. 

Done at Brussels, 

Article 2 

For the Council 
The President 

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