Corruption is a global challenge that substantially threatens various aspects of human life, both at the societal and individual levels, undermines democratic principles and institutions, hinders economic development and endangers national security.
According to certain estimates, the loss of economic wealth due to corruption amounts to 5% of GDP at the world level. Another estimate suggested that it costs the EU economy at least EUR 120 billion per year.
While corruption behaviours take many different shapes, one of its most harmful forms is corruption, associated with the illegal use of power by officials holding the highest positions in the state hierarchy and/or politicians to benefit themselves and their associates. High-level corruption usually entails massive embezzlement and substantial undue benefits for respective officials and their related persons. It typically pertains to significant and important projects for society, which ultimately inflicts severe damage on public interests. Moreover, the entire state's vital systems can be threatened by an intricate web of interconnected high-ranking officials and their entourage, including controlled politicians and media, fake NGOs and paid social media influencers, who are united by their shared corrupt interests.
According to the conclusions of the Summary Report of the OECD Anti-Corruption Network for Eastern Europe and Central Asia (OECD/ACN) for the period of 2016-2019, which, among other things, are based on the Fourth Round of Monitoring of the Istanbul Action Plan (IAP), most ACN countries demonstrated quite limited efforts in the detection, investigation and prosecution of high-level and complex corruption. The most common obstacles to tackling effectively high-level corruption were the lack of genuine political will to pursue these crimes, weakness and lack of capacities of law enforcement institutions, and low levels of interagency and international co-operation.
High-level corruption is not exclusive to any particular region, such as Eastern Europe or Central Asia. It also affects states with developed systems of democracy and the rule of law, effective anti-corruption institutions and a culture of public intolerance of corruption.
However, a stable anti-corruption infrastructure allows those countries to respond adequately to the occasional high-level corruption without posing a significant threat to society. In contrast, in countries with developing democratic and rule-of-law traditions, high-level corruption can lead to grave consequences, such as deterioration of state and public institutions and loss of public trust in them, economic and social decline of the state. Examples of such social protests caused, among other things, by high-level corruption are also known to the Eastern European countries – Georgia (Rose Revolution of 2004), Ukraine (social protests of 2004-5, 2013-14) and Armenia (2018).
Moreover, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine (“the war in Ukraine”) has once again shown that high-level corruption can be used to undermine the independence and resilience of emerging democracies and, therefore, can threaten the existence of states. Hence, overcoming high-level corruption in Eastern European countries is also an essential factor in the context of regional and global security based on the principles of international law, democracy and respect for human rights.
In addition, when it comes to the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, solving the problem of high-level corruption is directly related to their potential membership in the EU, which is a long-awaited aspiration of these countries’ citizens, given that anti-corruption reforms largely determine the pace of candidate countries’ progress towards accession to the EU.
National governments, the general public and the international and business communities have widely acknowledged the problem of high-level corruption in the region. This is evidenced by the implementation of various anti-corruption initiatives and the significant financial and human resources invested in building new or reforming existing institutions and legal frameworks. However, despite these efforts, the issue has persisted as one of the key obstacles to economic and social development, strengthening democracy, security and the rule of law in the region, which demands adequate attention.
Based on the considerations and conclusions mentioned above, ACN decided to focus its work programme on supporting countries in the region in their efforts against high-level corruption, including by preparing a thematic study on this topic.
The general objective of this study is to analyse the current state of fighting high-level corruption in EaP and other Eastern European countries, identify the typical factors that hinder these countries' efforts to address the problem, highlight respective lessons learned and illustrate good practices towards that goal.
The study comprises both policy and technical recommendations for decision-makers, anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies, as well as practitioners in the region, offering possible ways and measures to step up action against high-level corruption. These recommendations are non-mandatory, and their implementation should take into consideration the features of respective national legal systems and institutional frameworks. Nevertheless, countries are encouraged to use the recommendations to consider and take further measures to strengthen their response to high-level corruption.
The study was prepared within the framework of the EU for Integrity Action for the EaP Programme. Thus, it focuses particularly on EaP countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) while reflecting the relevant experience of other Eastern European countries.