The Council of Europe’s anti-corruption group (GRECO) today published an interim compliance report on Turkey. The report examines the compliance of the member state with 17 recommendations adopted in March 2010. These recommendations cover “incrimination” and “transparency of political funding”.
Since the adoption of these recommendations, GRECO examined several times the evolution with regard to their implementation, and, also taking into account information provided by the Turkish authorities, published several reports on its findings.
These reports categorised as “implemented satisfactorily” six out of eight recommendations on “incrimination”, the other two remaining “partly implemented”. With regard to “transparency of party funding”, GRECO concluded that none of the nine recommendations has been implemented satisfactorily. The conclusion in this latest interim report is that Turkey has not made any new tangible progress in the implementation of the recommendations. Whilst underlining that it is not indifferent to the difficult times that Turkey is going through and that it appreciates its renewed commitment to implementing these recommendations, GRECO stresses that it is clearly disappointing that the level of compliance at this stage remains “globally unsatisfactory”.
The Turkish authorities are once again urged to enhance their efforts to carry out the reforms initiated, paying particular attention to the effectiveness of measures planned.
According to its Rules of Procedure, GRECO requested Turkey to provide a report by 30 September 2017, on action taken to implement the pending recommendations. It also invited the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to send to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey a letter drawing attention to the situation and to the need to take determined action to achieve tangible progress as soon as possible.