27/03/2018
The international experts agreed on strategies to combat cross-border corruption at a meeting organised by EUROsociAL+, Transparency International and UC3M
Inauguration of the workshop at UC3M
The Corruption Perception Index, compiled by Transparency International (TI) in 2017, revealed a disappointing figure: more than two-thirds of the world’s countries suffer from this scourge. In Latin America, a large number of countries are in the red category and only Chile, Uruguay and Costa Rica obtained scores above the pass mark.
States face serious difficulties in combating this complex phenomena that transcends national borders, a situation that requires new strategies for action. This is where international cooperation provides an indispensable tool as it requires cooperation between different jurisdictions.
Faced with this situation, the EUROsociAL+ cooperation programme, funded by the European Union organised in Madrid, through the Governance department managed by FIIAPP and in conjunction with Transparency International (TI), a workshop to strengthen international cooperation in the fight against corruption. The activity was supported by the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M), within the framework of the R&D projects ‘The Criminal Responsibility of Transnational Corporations for Human Rights and Environmental Violations’ and the ‘Inter-university Culture of Legality Programme’.
Although there has been progress at the bilateral, regional and international levels, there are still challenges to investigating cases of corruption. An OECD survey undertaken in 2015 showed that 70% of officials working on anti-corruption consider that there are obstacles to mutual legal assistance that affect their work. These impediments are related to language differences, dual criminality, immunity, tax and banking secrecy issues.
The workshop analysed the situation regarding corruption, identified good practices and issued strategic recommendations that may have an impact on events such as the 2018 8th Summit of the Americas in Lima (Peru), the G-20 and C-20 in Argentina and the summit between the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
The opening ceremony of the event was attended by the Rector of UC3M, the Director of FIIAPP, the Regional Councillor for the Americas and the Secretariat of Transparency International (TI) in Berlin. The opening talk was given by the Attorney General of Colombia and the former President of Transparency International.
The forum brought together representatives from the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), the OECD and the Programme for Assistance against Transnational Organised Crime (PAcCTO), as well as officials from government departments and justice institutions from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Spain and Portugal. TI experts from Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela and lecturers from the Buenos Aires, Complutense and Carlos III de Madrid universities also attended.
