GRECO appreciated the fight against corruption in Azerbaijan

The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) of the Council of Europe calls on Governments to adopt stricter rules to prevent corruption and promote integrity in the highest executive bodies of central governments. This also applies to the activation of the urgent implementation of all GRECO recommendations.

In its annual report for 2023, GRECO expresses concern about the slow implementation of recommendations to prevent corruption among parliamentarians. It also emphasizes that some judicial systems should be further reformed to guarantee the independence of judges and prosecutors, as well as strengthen the rules of integrity.

States should ensure that their institutional and legislative framework of integrity extends not only to senior civil servants, but also to ministers, their political advisers and other political staff, as well as heads of State.

In the part of the report concerning Azerbaijan, it is noted that "some recommendations are still under consideration."  In particular, we are talking about increasing the role of the Judicial and Legal Counsil in appointing judges, reducing the influence of the executive branch on the prosecutor's office and increasing transparency in the issue of property of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors.  Therefore, GRECO invites the Azerbaijani authorities to keep abreast of the implementation of these recommendations."

At the current stage of monitoring, Azerbaijan has not implemented 3 out of 21 recommendations, partially implemented 4 and fully implemented 14.

 *GRECO is an international organization established by the Council of Europe in 1999 to assist member countries in improving anti-corruption mechanisms. GRECO participants can be not only members of the Council of Europe, but also any other country. In addition, a country that has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Civil and/or Criminal Liability for Corruption automatically joins GRECO and its evaluation mechanism. At the moment, the organization includes 49 States.