The High Authority invited to the “EU Integrity Project” kick-off conference

On 21 and 22 June, the High Authority was invited to participate in a conference to kick-off the “EU integrity project” organized in Vienna by the Austrian federal Anticorruption Bureau (BAK). The project adopts a cross-sectoral approach and covers both private and public actors. Public institutions tasked with missions of control and promotion of integrity from EU Member States and that are members of the European Partners against corruption Network (EPAC/EACN), which gathers administrations from Member States of the EU and the Council of Europe, were invited. Representatives of civil society, universities and research centers, and enterprises participated in this event and are fully associated to this new initiative.

After the introduction speeches of the Austrian federal Interior Minister and director general, and the presentation of the trends observed by the Public sector integrity division of the OECD, the Romanian, French and German partners of the BAK presented the 4 working groups around which the activities of the project will be articulated. They will cover the following aspects:

_ education, training, studies and research ;

_ standards and the creation of a platform to diffuse and promote them ;

_ whistleblowers protection ;

_ inter-agency cooperation.

A panel then allowed to present examples of approaches adopted both in the public and private sectors, but also the point of view of civil society and academia in the field of control and promotion of integrity. The experience of the High Authority in the field of control of assets and interests, but above all with regard to publication of some data, prevention of conflicts of interests and regulation of lobbying was presented.

The second day started with two interventions, one on the EU action in the fields of prevention of corruption and promotion of integrity, and the other one on the « Building Integrity Programme » of the University of Oxford. They were followed by discussion groups allowing all participants to contribute on their expectations and potential contributions to the future four working groups.

This project is the object of an application for EU funds, in order to finance the functioning of the working groups and the organization of new meetings to increase information and experience sharing among members.