Meeting of the European Network for Public Ethics on 10 and 11 October in Rome

The European Network for Public Ethics, created in June 2022 by the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life to promote public integrity and transparency, met on October 10 and 11 in Rome, Italy.

On 10 October 2024, the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority organised an international conference on “Preventing corruption in Europe: a new perspective”, which was held at the Temple of Hadrian in Rome.

Giuseppe Busia, President of the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority, opened the conference by emphasising the opportunity offered by the proposed directive on combatting corruption to strengthen institutions stressing the need to maintain the ambition of the text proposed by the European Commission.

Patrick Matet, member of the board and Interim President of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life, who was then President of the European Network for Public Ethics, recalled the Network’s support to the European institutions for the inclusion of the preventive aspect in this directive.

Filippo Patroni Griffi, Judge at the Constitutional Court of the Italian Republic and former Minister for Public Administration and Simplification, went back over legislative developments in the fight against corruption in Italy.

Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Professor of political science at the Luis Guida Carli University, highlighted the comparative analysis work of the EuroPAM website and presented the T-index as a tool for evaluating public policies.

The European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, recalled the need to strengthen the rules on revolving doors in order to avoid conflicts of interest. She presented the new EU Ethics Body as a mean of ensuring the harmonisation of integrity rules between the European institutions.

Elsa Pilichowski, Director for Public Governance at the OECD, then presented the results of the OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions, according to which 44% of the population surveyed had low or no trust in their national government, compared with 39% who had moderate or high trust. She highlighted the integrity indicators developed by the OECD which help countries to assess their legislative frameworks.

Ramona Strugariu, member of the European Parliament presented the different approaches of the European Parliament and the Council to the preventive aspect of the directive. Jorge Valladares, Political Integrity Policy Lead at Transparency International and Nicola Allocca, Chair of the Business at the OECD were also questioned on the effectiveness of the proposed directive in strengthening preventive measures within EU Member States.

In the afternoon, the European Network for Public Ethics met to continue discussion between its members on the preventive aspect of the directive, and more specifically article 4 concerning the setting up of specialised bodies to prevent corruption within Member States. The members discussed the functioning and independence of their authorities and adopted the Rome declaration supporting preventive measures in the directive on combatting corruption.

The following day, at the plenary meeting of the European Network for Public Ethics, which welcomed Spain as a new member, the members discussed the different practices for detecting and managing conflicts of interest. The Network secretariat presented the results of the comparative analysis carried out on this issue in the member countries. Croatia and Lithuania presented case studies on the management of conflicts of interest in their countries.

To conclude the meeting, the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life presented the main achievements of the French presidency of the Network since 2022 and handed over the presidency of the Network to the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority for the next two-year term.

Meeting of the European Network for Public Ethics

Patrick Matet, member of the board and Interim President of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life and Giuseppe Busia, President of the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority