Group of States against Corruption
The Group of States against Corruption (French: groupe d'États contre la corruption, GRECO) is the Council of Europe's anti-corruption monitoring body with its headquarters in Strasbourg (France). It was established in 1999 as an enlarged partial agreement by 17 Council of Europe member states.
Group of States Against Corruption | |
Formation | May 1, 1999 |
---|---|
Type | Institutional |
Headquarters | Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France |
Membership | 50 member states, 10 observers |
Website | http://www.coe.int/greco |
GRECO, which is also open to non-European states, currently has 50 members (48 European states, Kazakhstan and the United States of America). Since August 2010, all Council of Europe members have been members of GRECO. Membership in GRECO is not limited to Council of Europe member states, any state which took part in the elaboration of the enlarged partial agreement, may join by notifying the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. Moreover, any state which becomes party to Council of Europe's Criminal or Civil Law Conventions on Corruption automatically accedes to GRECO and its evaluation procedures. While all its member states are GRECO members, the European Union itself is not, but it became an observer in 2019.
The GRECO Secretariat is located in the Council of Europe's "Agora" building completed in 2008.
Of GRECO's 2019 recommendations, Serbia, Turkey and Slovakia did not fully implement any of them while Norway was scored best. Recommendations related to reducing corruption among MPs were least implemented (27 percent). GRECO’s president stated in a press release, "This explains to a large extent why people’s trust in politics is very low and will be even lower if politicians don’t step up their compliance with integrity standards".