Brussels has launched a series of measures aimed at monitoring and fighting corruption in the 27 EU member states.

The measures include a biannual EU anti-corruption report, which will identify trends and weaknesses that need to be addressed by member states and encourage exchanges of best practices.

The EU Executive said the report would start being issued in 2013 and would be based on inputs from a variety of sources, including existing monitoring mechanisms (by the Council of Europe, the OECD and the United Nations), independent experts, stakeholders and civil society.

The Commission announced that, in order to address corruption more effectively, member states would start being asked to better implement the anti-corruption legal instruments already in place at the European and international level. According to a recent analysis by the Commission, the implementation of anti-corruption laws is very uneven among member states.

Along with this initiative, greater emphasis on corruption would be made through all relevant EU policies, both internal and external. To attain this end, the EU would be proposing new rules on confiscation of criminal assets, a strategy to improve criminal financial investigations in member states in 2012 and an action plan for better crime statistics.

The Commission said that together with EU agencies it would step up judicial and police cooperation and improve training of law enforcement officers and work towards modernised EU rules on public procurement and accounting standards.

“The fight against corruption needs priority attention,” European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said yesterday. “While there are quite sophisticated legal frameworks at international and European level, we have seen that implementation among EU member states is very uneven. It is clear to me that there is not enough determination among politicians and decision-makers to fight this crime.”

According to a recent research conducted by the EU, four out of five EU citizens regard corruption as a major problem in their country.

Corruption is estimated to cost the economy of the EU €120 billion a year or one per cent of the EU’s GDP. This figure represents a little less than the EU’s annual budget.

Malta ranked 37th, with a 5.6 score, in the latest Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, which gauges people’s perceptions of corruption. The result was an improvement over the all time low of 45th placing in 2010. However, it is still not a good showing, even compared to the 25th ranking Malta obtained in 2007.

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