Under the Lithuanian Presidency, national governments as part of the EU Council failed to make progress on important anti-corruption issues in two areas related to corporate transparency: improving corporate reporting and greater transparency on corporate ownership. Today, the TI EU Office and TI Lithuania publish a Presidency Scorecard which evaluates the Council’s commitment to the anti-corruption and transparency agenda. The Scorecard highlights that while the conduct of the Lithuanian Presidency was marked by a number of good practices, there was little progress made on two out of six key legislative dossiers. [1]
“Greater transparency about who owns companies and their payments to governments is an important part of the fight against corruption. In both cases EU governments failed to match rhetoric with action,” said Carl Dolan, Director of the Transparency International EU Office. “This is one reason why it is critical to have more transparency of EU Council proceedings and to monitor whether EU governments are delivering on their anti-corruption commitments in Brussels”.
The Scorecard aims to shine a light on decision making in the EU Council. It is the result of a joint evaluation by Transparency International EU and Transparency International Lithuania between July and December 2013. You can find the summary Scorecard here and a version that includes more detailed narrative here.
Over the next 18 months the Transparency International will continue to monitor how EU member states conduct their Presidencies and how they promote crucial anti-corruption legislation. TI EU will publish its findings every six months in the format of a Presidency Scorecard. [3] The Scorecard provides an independent evaluation of progress in the EU Council and governments’ track record with respect to anti-corruption during any EU Presidency. The Scorecard for the Greek Presidency will be published in September 2014.