Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

On 1 July, Monaco became the 46th member State of GRECO (*) - a direct and automatic result of the Principality ratifying the Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Convention on Corruption on 19 March this year.

Through its accession to GRECO, Monaco joins countries which have actively committed themselves to fighting corruption by accepting to participate in the Group’s mutual evaluation process. An evaluation team will go to Monaco to deal initially with issues related to the themes of the First and Second Evaluation Rounds which were conducted between 1999 and 2006 (notably the capability of institutions to deal with corruption cases and preventive measures taken within the public administration). A further visit of evaluation in the framework of GRECO’s newly launched Third Evaluation Round will be carried out at a later stage and deal with incriminations of corruption and transparency of party funding.

Monaco became a member of the Council of Europe in October 2004. As underlined in the report of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on honouring of obligations and commitments by Monaco, the ratification of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption forms part of a series of reforms decided on by Prince Albert II, whose purpose is to give greater transparency to the management of all bodies receiving public funds in the interests of ethics and clarity. Among other things, it is proposed to supplement the rules laying down the conditions in which public servants may or may not conclude contracts, sales or purchases with persons or administrators of companies exercising powers of administration or supervision in those bodies.

Sources : GRECO