The Czech government opposes the proposed EU directive to harmonise penalties for corruption across the EU, with Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blažek (ODS, ECR) saying his country doubts some of the measures presented in the proposal.
The European Commission proposed the new directive in May, which proposes to set up new specialised anti-corruption bodies, harmonise definitions of criminal offences prosecuted as corruption and increase criminal sanctions.
“In the framework position, we appreciate the European Commission’s efforts to step up the fight against corruption and support the objectives of the Directive. However, we consider some parts of the directive problematic and have doubts about them,” Blažek said.
“In the framework of the discussion of the draft directive, we will seek to amend it so that our objections are met,” the Czech minister added.
The Senate, the upper chamber of the Czech parliament, also agrees with the government’s position and rejected the Commission’s proposal in a vote last week. In particular, it took aim at the potential introduction of a penalty for corruption of “deprivation of the right to stand for election” and requirements for deciding whether to waive the immunity of public officials.
According to the Czech Senate, the EU has no competence to introduce such measures.
“The Directive must be adapted into a form which is of high legislative and technical quality and clear as regards the definition of offences,” the Czech Senate stated.
“The other provisions should be regulated in the same way as in already adopted directives harmonising substantive criminal law, which represent a general compromise between the member states as regards the extent of harmonisation of general rules in this area,” Czech Senators concluded. (Aneta Zachová | EURACTIV.cz)
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