Corruption

Spurred into action by a major corruption scandal, the European Parliament president wants to prevent former lawmakers from lobbying on behalf of businesses or governments soon after they leave office and to make public the names of current members who break assembly rules, a parliamentary official said Wednesday.

Bulgaria has improved its results on the rule of law, moving up two positions to 60th from last year's 62nd place among 140 countries, according to the Rule of Law Index (RLI) of The World Justice Project (WJP) for 2022. Bulgaria country has 55 points (1 more than last year) out of 100 possible.

During the debate, '(Anti)Corruption in Focus', organised by Bosnian BIRN and Transparency International in Sarajevo, members of eight political parties presented their anti-corruption strategies.

Both understand that bad moves at the local level are more tolerable to the West than those at the regional level, as long as you play nice with the neighbours; both rule their countries with an iron fist - Vucic overtly, Rama's hidden behind a velvet glove.

The heir and de facto leader of Samsung group received a presidential pardon on Aug. 12, the latest example of South Korea's long tradition of freeing business leaders convicted of corruption on economic grounds.    

The Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption, GRECO, said in its latest report on Tuesday that further measures are needed to prevent corruption among top public servants in Serbia, including the president, ministers, their assistants, state secretaries, chiefs of cabinet and political advisers, as well as police officials.

For all its tough talk against Russia, the U.K.'s government is failing to enforce its promises to clean up dirty foreign money, a hard-hitting report by MPs said yesterday.

Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers Meeting, November 30, 2021. Photo: Council of Europe

"GRECO concluded that the very low level of compliance with the recommendations was 'globally unsatisfactory'," the report said.

Albanian Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime offices in Tirana. Photo: LSA

The ex-President's arrest for corruption has outraged Moldova's pro-Russian parties - but the pro-Western government seems confident it can survive the backlash.