Issued by Transparency International Secretariat
Berlin. January 19, 2017. In December 2016 a German MP convened a meeting with a number of CSO representatives (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch) as well as representatives of ESI regarding a case of blatant corruption in PACE, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). In short, an Italian member of PACE has been paid a total of 2,3 million EUR years to rig votes on Azerbaijan-related resolutions of the Assembly.
The case was first put to public attention in 2013 with the report “Caviar Diplomacy” , but it was not yet very well documented at the time and nothing happened. The Italian state television RAI 3 published this video (in Italian) and a follow-up report “Caviar II” was published few weeks ago. By now the case is well documented and proven. It must be assumed that many members of PACE were bribed in order to vote against a report written by a German MP about human rights violations in Azerbaijan, including MPs from Western European democracies (particularly Czech Republic, Italy, France, Poland, Spain and UK and channelled the bribes through Estonia and Latvia). In fact, ESI who follow developments at the Council of Europe level closely, are under the impression that PACE and other CoE institutions are increasingly being undermined by corruption.
Transparency International and six of its European chapters today called on the three top officials of the Council of Europe to investigate serious allegations of corruption in that organisation, and expressed dismay at the apparent lack of effective internal anti-corruption mechanisms at Europe’s most important human rights institution.
Transparency International, the world’s largest anti-corruption group, demanded a strong response from Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland to allegations recently reported by the European Stability Initiative (ESI) on corruption at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
In that research, ESI alleged that Azerbaijan, among others have unduly influenced, over many years, Council of Europe activities and votes on human rights issues, including by allegedly transferring huge sums of money and other favours to key parliamentarians.
“Any investigation into breaches of the Code of Conduct and follow-up are left completely to the discretion of the President of the Assembly, and under full control of the parliamentarians,” states the letter, which was co-signed by six Transparency International national chapters in TI Czech Republic, France, Italy, Latvia, Spain and United Kingdom. An effective ethics corruption investigation mechanism must be independent and non-partisan.
«I hope that this story will serve as an example for the Ukrainian delegation to PACE. And it should not repeat the mistakes made by the Italian colleagues, but to be an example of the EU’s values, which are equity and the rule of law. Ukrainians illustrate an example for other Europeans in many aspects. Let the work of our delegation to PACE be a confirmation to this,» stated manager of International Relations at Transparency International Ukraine Anastasiia Kozlovtseva.
Transparency International urged Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers Ioannis Kasoulidis and President of the Parliamentary Assembly Pedro Agramunt Font de Mora to take the following concrete steps:
- Release a strong public statement affirming that there can be no place for corruption in the Council of Europe
- Support the establishment of a special integrity framework in line with best international standards in PACE to ensure adherence to high ethical standards by its members. A special integrity framework, including an independent office of Council of Europe ethics with investigators answering to an independent board would be a useful solution to this governance vacuum.
- Organise an independent investigation, led by an expert in such matters, into the circumstances surrounding the PACE vote on political prisoners in January 2013, and into the behaviour of members of the Azerbaijani delegation.
“It is crucial to develop a robust response of integrity on the issue of political prisoners,” according to the letter sent today.
To see the three letters please go to “Supplementary Downloads” at the bottom of this page.
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