The EU Anti-Corruption Report: A Reflexive Governance Approach

285 Pages·2019·7.776 MB·English

by  Andi Hoxhaj

The EU Anti-Corruption Report
This book analyses the development of anti-corruption as a policy field in the
European Union with a particular focus on the EU Anti-Corruption Report. It
reconstructs the origins of anti-corruption policy in the 1990s when the EU
started to recognise corruption as a serious crime with a cross-border dimen-
sion. It also analyses the processes surrounding the downfall of the Santer
Commission on charges of corruption in 1999 and the enlargement of the
EU. This incorporation of transitional new member states was accompanied by
a number of specific measures, instruments and monitoring mechanisms to
combat corruption at the supranational level, finally leading to the introduc-
tion of the EU-wide Anti-Corruption Report in 2014. The book presents an
in-depth analysis of its implementation, abandonment and the way forward
under the European Semester as the new instrument for achieving EU anti-
corruption reforms. It offers a new interpretation of the Report as a form of
reflexive governance that operates at multiple levels and involves not only the
European institutions and national governments, but also the role of civil soci-
ety actors in the process of developing anti-corruption policy. It applies the
theory of reflexive governance in analysing the impact of the Report in the
UK, Romania and Albania, including the involvement of non-state actors in
anti-corruption policymaking in these countries. The book concludes with
a discussion on how future EU Anti-Corruption policy can make use of reflex-
ive governance and offers recommendations to enhance anti-corruption pol-
icies of the EU, the member states and the candidate states.
Dr Andi Hoxhaj is a Teaching Fellow in Law at the University of Warwick,
teaching EU law. He was awarded his doctorial title in 2017 at the University
of Warwick. His work on corruption, good governance, EU enlargement policy
and the migration of young people in the Western Balkans were referred to in
three parliamentary inquiry reports published by the UK Parliament in 2018. In
2018, Dr Hoxhaj was awarded the ‘British Academy Rising Star Engagement
Award’. Dr Hoxhaj also holds an LLM in International Corporate Governance
and Financial Regulation from the University of Warwick and an LLB (Hons) in
Law from London Metropolitan University.
Law, Crime and Culture
Series editors:
Professor Susanne Karstedt, University of Leeds, UK;
Professor Ralf Rogowski, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK;
Professor Dirk Tänzler, University of Konstanz, Germany
The Law, Crime and Culture series explores an increasingly important and top-
ical area of interdisciplinary research, covering a broad range of themes from
understandings of social and legal order in individual cultures to intersections of
criminological, legal and cultural inquiry. The series promotes cross-disciplinary
and comparative research, and the series editors actively welcome submissions
on the many and varied topics related to crime, social control and legal culture
across the world.
Available titles in this series include:
The Social Construction of Corruption in Europe
Dirk Tänzler, Konstadinos Maras and Angelos Giannakopoulos
The EU Anti-Corruption Report
A reflexive governance approach
Andi Hoxhaj
The EU Anti-Corruption
Report
fl
A Re exive Governance Approach
Andi Hoxhaj
Firstpublished2020
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Listofabbreviations xi
Introduction 1
SECTION1 9
1 Anintroduction:Ashorthistoryofanti-corruptionpolicyin
theEU 11
1.1 Thefirstphase 12
1.2 Thesecondphase 16
1.3 Thethirdphase 19
1.4 Thefourthphase 22
1.5 Conclusion 29
2 TheEUanti-corruptionreport 31
2.1 OverviewofgeneralobjectivesandfindingsoftheEUanti-corruption
report 32
2.2 PerceptionsofcorruptionandexperienceofcorruptionintheEU 34
2.2.1 Privatecitizenresponses 34
2.2.2 Commercialresponses 37
2.3 Publicprocurement 38
2.4 TheEUanti-corruptionreportrecommendationsforeachofthe
memberstates 42
2.4.1 Austria 42
2.4.2 Belgium 42
2.4.3 Bulgaria 43
2.4.4 Croatia 43
2.4.5 Cyprus 44
2.4.6 CzechRepublic 44
vi Contents
2.4.7 Denmark 45
2.4.8 Estonia 45
2.4.9 Finland 46
2.4.10 France 46
2.4.11 Germany 47
2.4.12 Greece 47
2.4.13 Hungary 48
2.4.14 Ireland 48
2.4.15 Italy 49
2.4.16 Latvia 49
2.4.17 Lithuania 50
2.4.18 Luxembourg 51
2.4.19 Malta 51
2.4.20 TheNetherlands 52
2.4.21 Poland 52
2.4.22 Portugal 53
2.4.23 Romania 53
2.4.24 Slovakia 54
2.4.25 Slovenia 55
2.4.26 Spain 55
2.4.27 Sweden 56
2.4.28 UnitedKingdom 56
2.5 GenerallimitationsoftheEUanti-corruptionreport 57
2.6 Conclusion 59
3 TheEUanti-corruptionreportandreflexivegovernance 60
3.1 Introduction 60
3.2 NewgovernanceintheEuropeanUnion 60
3.3 Theopenmethodofcoordination 62
3.4 Reflexivegovernance 66
3.5 Reflexivelaw 71
3.6 AnanalysisoftheEUanti-corruptionreportasreflexive
governance 74
3.7 Conclusion 81
SECTION2 CountryCaseStudies 83
4 TheUnitedKingdom 85
4.1 TheEUanti-corruptionreportfortheUK 85
4.1.1 TheUKattitudetoethics 86
4.2 ForeignbriberyintheUK 87
Contents vii
4.2.1 Risk-basedprinciplesforpreventingbribery 89
4.2.2 Briberyofforeignpublicofficials 91
4.2.3 Improvingtheaccountabilityinthegovernanceofbanks 94
4.2.4 Areviewofthefailuresofthefinancialsystem 96
4.3 PoliticalcorruptionintheUK 98
4.3.1 ImplementingadonationcapintheUK 101
4.3.2 Integrityinelectedofficials 102
4.3.3 Corruptionconcernsinthedefencesector 104
4.4 UKresponsestotheEUanti-corruptionreport 108
4.5 Post-Brexit:theUKanti-corruptioninitiatives 110
5 Romania 114
5.1 TheEUanti-corruptionreportforRomania 114
5.1.1 Thejudicialsystem 114
5.1.2 Thepoliticalsystem 116
5.1.3 Healthcare 117
5.1.4 Publicprocurement 118
5.2 TheEUanti-corruptionstrategytowardsRomania—theCVM 120
5.2.1 TheCooperationandVerificationMechanism
forRomania 122
5.2.2 RecommendationsforRomania’sjudicialsystem 126
5.2.3 Recommendationsforthepoliticalsystem 128
5.2.4 Recommendationsforpublicprocurement 132
5.2.5 Thethreatofcorruptioninhealthcare 136
5.3 Post-EUanti-corruptionreport 139
6 Albania 146
6.1 TheEUanti-corruptionreportforAlbania 146
6.2 Post-communistAlbaniaandanti-corruption 146
6.2.1 1990–1997:corruptionasanewpoliticalchessgame 146
6.2.2 Thecollapseofthepyramidschemesandtheinternational
supporttofightcorruptioninAlbania,1997–2009 152
6.2.3 TheEUconditionalityandAlbania’sobstaclesin
developingananti-corruptionpolicy 156
6.3 AlbanianrelationswiththeEuropeanUnion 157
6.3.1 Thechronologicalpathtoaccession 158
6.3.2 Candidatestatusdelay—corruptionandorganisedcrime
factors 161
6.4 Reformingthepublicadministration 163
6.5 Reformingthejudiciary 168
6.6 ThefutureforAlbaniaandtheanti-corruptionpolicyfield 172
viii Contents
6.6.1 Concludingremarksonthecountrystudies 173
SECTION3 179
7 ThefutureofEUanti-corruptionpolicy 181
7.1 Introduction 181
7.2 TheimpactoftheEUanti-corruptionreport 181
7.3 TheEUanti-corruptionpolicy—theendofthereportin2017 186
7.4 TheEuropeansemesterprocess 189
7.4.1 EuropeanSemester2018anti-corruption
recommendations 192
7.4.2 Country-specificrecommendationsummary 202
7.5 EUanti-corruptionpolicyundertheEuropeansemesterprocess 202
7.5.1 Europeansemesterprocess:narrowscopeandopaque
reasoning 203
7.5.2 Failurestopromotegoodgovernanceandtheruleoflaw 203
7.5.3 Noroomforabroaderdialogue:civilsocietyexclusion 205
7.6 ImprovingtheEuropeansemesterprocessinanalysingcorruption 206
7.6.1 Implementation 206
7.6.2 Riskassessmentanalysis 209
7.7 ThefuturefortheEuropeansemesterprocessandEUanti-corruption
policy 211
7.7.1 IncludingorganisedcrimeinEUanti-corruptionpolicy
objectives 213
7.7.2 Includingtheprotectionofwhistle-blowerstoEUanti-corrup-
tionpolicyobjectives 215
7.7.3 Empoweringspecialisedanti-corruptioninstitutionsatthe
memberstatelevel 217
7.8 Conclusion 221
Conclusion 224
AppendixA—Europeansemestercountry-specificrecommendations
in2018 233
Bibliography 235
Index 261
Acknowledgements
This book is based on research conducted on anti-corruption polices and laws
in the European Union since the fall of the Iron Curtain to the present; parts
of the book derive from research carried out for the PhD thesis that I wrote at
the University of Warwick. I am grateful to a number of colleagues, family and
friends in encouraging me to start the work, persevere with it and finally to
publish it.
First and foremost, special gratitude goes to my former PhD supervisor Pro-
fessor Ralf Rogowski for his unconditional support and guidance throughout
my PhD and for having confidence in my ability to write this book and pursue
an academic career. I would also like to thank colleagues at Warwick Law
School, in particular to the EU law team, Professor Dora Kostakopoulou and
Dr Jill Wakefiel—for their support, for the opportunity to teach parts of this
book in the module ‘Law and Policiesof the EuropeanUnion’, and for support-
ing my early academic career in areas of EU law and policy. Without their
patience and support, it would have not been possible. I will always be grateful
to them for their unconditional support throughout my time at Warwick and in
completing this project.
I am grateful to my fellow PhD candidates, Dr Catherine Arias and
Dr Hassan Nizami, for their support during the PhD and while writing this
book. I would also like to thank all other colleagues and administrative staff at
the University of Warwick for their friendship and goodwill through the years,
especially to Dr Stephen Connelly, Barbara Nastoll, Dr George Meszaros, Pro-
fessor Mark Philp, Helen Riley, and to my former LLM lecturers, Dr Kathryn
McMahon and Professor Dalvinder Singh. I would also like to thank Is Andrews
for her great work in editing this book and looking through endless drafts of
the manuscript. I am indebted for the opportunities you provided and for the
conversations that gave me valuable insights into research questions and devel-
oping this book.
Gratitude is also due to Professor Susan Rose-Ackerman of Yale University,
Dr Patrycja Szarek-Mason of Reading University, Professor Alina Mungiu-
Pippidi of the Hertie School of Governance, Dr Blendi Kajsiu of the Univer-
sity of Antioquia, and colleagues at Transparency International in the EU
and UK, Carl Dolan and Robert Barrington, whose research and advocacy