In 't Veld asks the European Commission about abolition of EU Anti-Corruption Report - Main contents

In January, against all expectations, the European Commission announced its decision to not publish a second EU Anti-Corruption Report, shifting anti-corruption monitoring to the framework of the European Semester [1]. This decision was taken despite former assurances that the second report was going to be published in 2016 by the Commission and the European Parliament resolution 2015/2110(INI) on the fight against corruption and follow-up of the CRIM resolution, which explicitly calls for the Commission to submit the second Anti-Corruption Report.

Against this background,

• 1. 

  Can the Commission confirm that the report was, in fact, ready to be published by the end of 2016?

• 2. 

  Can the Commission confirm that the preparatory work for the report or parts thereof was tendered to PwC or otherwise part of a framework contract?

• 3. 

  Given that the fight against corruption is largely a law enforcement matter, and EU instruments for fighting corruption have a legal basis relating to police- and justice cooperation, can the Commission clarify why it considers that democratic oversight should be part of the European semester and thus fall under another Commissioner?

[1]  http://transparency.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/20170130-Letter-FVP-LIBE-Chair.pdf