Common European Anti-corruption Standards for Civil Servants

Abstract

The chapter considers anti-corruption policies in the public service in selected Member States of the Council of Europe and the European Union. It starts from considering how this policy relates to public officials – a wider notion than that of civil servant, circumscribes the different definitions of public corruption, and enumerates the international conventions and European conventions, regulations and soft law instruments related to anti-corruption policies. In the second part it examines anti-corruption policy instruments – mainly criminal law sanctions for active and passive bribery, sanctions for the bribery of foreign public officials, hospitality and gifts, and whistle-blowing. The author concludes that a holistic view on corruption is useful, since the nexus between autocratic regimes or deficient democratic institutions and corruption is well known on the international agenda of controlling or transparency institutions. As inherent part of the rule of law it must be constantly supervised.