12 Feb 2020

ACT! Fighting Corruption at Local Level

2021-08-30T12:04:02+02:00

Madrid, 11 February 2020 – The Anticorruption City Toolkit (ACT!) is a project designed to prevent corruption at local level by providing municipalities with policies and digital tools for improving the detection and reporting of corruption, for receiving information requests, and for controlling public procurement and budgeting. The project is being carried out by a pan-European consortium comprising Access Info Europe in Spain, Transparency International Italia, Avviso Pubblico, Ondata, and Openpolis in Italy, and Vouliwatch in Greece, together with the municipalities of Athens, Madrid, and Milan. During the first phase of the project, in-depth surveys were conducted to map the

ACT! Fighting Corruption at Local Level2021-08-30T12:04:02+02:00
22 Jan 2020

Tenders Guru project: Guide to EU Whistleblower Protection Directive

2021-08-11T13:28:33+02:00

Madrid, 22 January 2020- Leading transparency and anti-corruption organisations from across Europe have today released a Guide to the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive, which came into force on 16 December 2019 and must be transposed by EU Member States within two years. The Guide explains how the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive is structured and the minimum standards of protection that countries need to include in national law. The Guide also makes recommendations on how national laws can ensure an even more comprehensive protection for anyone who exposes corruption and wrongdoing in any area of governmental activity and spending. The Guide

Tenders Guru project: Guide to EU Whistleblower Protection Directive2021-08-11T13:28:33+02:00
16 Jan 2020

Tenders Guru project: Public Procurement Glossary

2021-08-11T13:24:23+02:00

Madrid, 15 January 2020- Leading transparency and anti-corruption organisations from across Europe have today released the Public Procurement Glossary, a guide on the terminology used in public procurement processes, with the goal of making it easier for civil society and journalists to monitor for corruption and wrongdoing in local procurement processes.

Tenders Guru project: Public Procurement Glossary2021-08-11T13:24:23+02:00
20 Dec 2019

Tenders Guru project: reducing corruption risks with data

2021-08-11T13:32:08+02:00

Madrid, 20 December 2019- A major pan-European project looking into how to reduce corruption in public procurement, including at the local level, is currently underway in four European countries, and is producing it is first results which can be found on the Tenders.Guru website.

Tenders Guru project: reducing corruption risks with data2021-08-11T13:32:08+02:00
11 Apr 2017

Pushing for beneficial ownership transparency in Europe

2018-11-13T10:03:20+01:00

[Article first published by the UNCAC Coalition Blog] Andreas Pavlou, RTI Campaigner and Researcher   Madrid, 11 April 2017 - Earlier this year, the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs and Civil Liberties committees voted to strengthen beneficial ownership transparency rules across the European Union as part of the current revision to the 4th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive. The proposed changes, if adopted in plenary, would mean EU citizens could access registers of beneficial owners of companies and trusts without having to demonstrate a “legitimate interest”, as is currently the case. This is something that will make it

Pushing for beneficial ownership transparency in Europe2018-11-13T10:03:20+01:00
22 Mar 2017

European Civil Society Organisations Urge EU to Publish Anti-Corruption Reports

2020-01-29T11:42:44+01:00

Madrid, 22 March 2017 – Access Info Europe, Transparency International EU, and 56 other civil society organisations have urged the Commission in an open letter not to abandon its leadership role in the fight against corruption, after it dropped the publication of long-awaited anti-corruption reports of all 28 Member States earlier this year. The letter, also being sent directly to First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, comes after an access to EU documents request for the actual draft reports was submitted by 14 leading transparency and anti-corruption organisations in Europe, including Access Info. “Access to these reports is essential in giving European

European Civil Society Organisations Urge EU to Publish Anti-Corruption Reports2020-01-29T11:42:44+01:00
10 Mar 2017

The risks of transparency in times of rising populism

2018-11-13T10:03:40+01:00

[Article first published by the UNCAC Coalition Blog] Helen Darbishire, Executive Director Madrid, 10 March 2017 - It’s not often that your own colleagues working on democracy issues actually question the wisdom of pressing for greater transparency, but this has happened to me a few times lately. Most recently, I’ve been asked about the wisdom of pursuing Access Info’s high profile campaign to get the European Commission to publish the travel expenses of EU Commissioners. The fear seems to be that this very peculiar time in European history – with sensitive elections in France and the Netherlands, with

The risks of transparency in times of rising populism2018-11-13T10:03:40+01:00
3 Mar 2017

Why is the European Commission not publishing reports on Corruption in the 28 Member States?

2018-11-13T10:03:41+01:00

Madrid, 3 March 2017 – Fourteen (14) of Europe’s leading transparency organisations today submitted a formal request for EU documents in an attempt to understand what lies behind the European Commission’s surprise decision not to publish the EU Anti-Corruption Report, which was originally scheduled for publication in 2016. The unexpected decision to permanently shelve the second edition of the EU Anti-Corruption Report, first published in 2014, was announced by Vice-President Frans Timmermans in a letter to the European Parliament in early 2017. The watchdog organisations from across the European Union have requested documents relating to the decision to withhold the

Why is the European Commission not publishing reports on Corruption in the 28 Member States?2018-11-13T10:03:41+01:00
1 Mar 2017

European Parliament votes in favour of stronger EU-wide beneficial ownership transparency rules

2018-11-13T10:03:41+01:00

Madrid, 1 March 2017 - Access Info Europe has welcomed yesterday’s vote by the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs and Civil Liberties committees to strengthen beneficial ownership transparency rules across the European Union. The amendments to the EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive agreed by MEPs would mean EU citizens could access registers of beneficial owners of companies and trusts without having to demonstrate a “legitimate interest” something that will make it easier for investigative journalists and anti-corruption watchdogs to track down illegal activity, organised crime, money laundering and large-scale tax evasion. “Only full transparency of beneficial ownership registers across Europe

European Parliament votes in favour of stronger EU-wide beneficial ownership transparency rules2018-11-13T10:03:41+01:00
19 Jun 2015

Transparency is Essential for a Credible Post-2015 Development Agenda

2018-11-13T10:05:08+01:00

Madrid, 19 June 2015 – Access Info Europe has joined civil society organisations from around the globe in calling on the UN to take significant steps to integrate transparency, accountability and participation more fully into the Post-2015 development agenda. In proposing a series of crucial edits to the “Zero Draft” of the Outcome Document for the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the Transparency, Accountability and Participation (TAP) Network argues that a development framework that fails to promote openness will lack credibility and risks disempowering the very communities it should be serving. “The development agenda for the next 15 years must include mechanisms that

Transparency is Essential for a Credible Post-2015 Development Agenda2018-11-13T10:05:08+01:00