Brussels, 19 November 2024 – The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) renewed their commitment to foster collaboration by holding the third EU-UNODC Anti-Corruption Dialogue in Brussels.
Initiated in 2022 as a follow-up to the 16th EU-UNODC Senior Officials Meeting, the Anti-Corruption Dialogue provides a dedicated platform to discuss common priorities and challenges and agree on future cooperation to prevent and combat corruption.
This year’s Dialogue explored the collaboration between the EU and UNODC on anti-corruption measures in their strategies, policies, and programmes. The organizations identified common priorities and challenges, and discussed further collaboration on, inter alia, the fight against corruption linked to organized crime (including drug trafficking), crimes that affect the environment, new technologies, and Global Gateway investments. The goal is to align efforts and work together more effectively, including in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, and Neighbourhoods East and South.
To uphold the rule of law and strengthen its internal security, the EU recognizes the prevention and fight against corruption as important priorities, as outlined, among others, in EU political strategies and in policy documents such as the Joint Communication on the fight against corruption and the proposal for an EU Directive on combating corruption. To achieve these goals, the EU adopted numerous initiatives at both European and global levels, including the annual EU Rule of Law Report, the review of its implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), and its participation to multilateral fora. Renewing its commitment, the EU published in November a study assessing corruption vulnerabilities within the EU in preparation of the first EU anti-corruption strategy, aimed at maximising the impact and coherence of EU actions.
UNODC, as the guardian of UNCAC and the secretariat to the Implementation Review Mechanism, has extensive knowledge and expertise in assisting Member States in preventing and combating corruption. In recent years, UNODC strengthened its field presence through the establishment of regional anti-corruption hubs and platforms, training over 2,000 anti-corruption practitioners from over 80 countries per year in preventing, detecting, investigating, prosecuting and adjudicating corruption cases.
Among the results of last year’s Anti-Corruption Dialogue, the EU and UNODC created Anti-Corruption Partnership Forum, which brings together international organizations to exchange on policy matters, knowledge development, technical assistance delivery and peer review mechanisms.
The two organizations agreed on a number of follow-up actions to steer their cooperation and make joint efforts more effective in the months and years to come. These include, among others, continued collaboration in the frameworks of the EU Network against Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Partnership Forum, mutual staff exchanges for cross-organizational understanding, and continued contribution to respective anti-corruption policies, tools and campaigns.
Moreover, participants also shared ideas on how to engage in the upcoming eleventh session of the Conference of the States Parties to UNCAC in 2025, including through the organization of joint side events, for example on whistleblower protection. As last year’s Conference saw record participation with over 2,000 government representatives from 160 countries and over 900 representatives of civil society organizations, next year’s anti-corruption gathering will be pivotal in charting the way forward and coordinated efforts in tackling corruption.
