According to the proposed rules, EU member states would be required to adhere to minimum requirements in order to ensure that “privileges and immunity may be lifted during investigations of corruption” and that “police and prosecutors have appropriate investigative tools for fighting corruption”.

Eurobarometer 2022 survey revealed that 68 percent of EU citizens believed that corruption was widespread throughout their country.

Jourova said that only about a third had confidence in anti-corruption initiatives. She added that 40% of respondents believe that it is useless for people to report corruption because they don’t think they will be investigated properly.

The reform “will raise the bar in EU-wide corruption definitions and penalties and will assist authorities to catch and penalize criminals, whether from [the] She added that criminals exploit the loopholes created by the different definitions for corruption in member countries.

Ylva Johannsson, the commissioner for home affairs, told reporters that “at least 60 percent” of organized criminal groups operating in the EU used corruption as a tactic.

The EU would have to adapt its criminal codes in order to harmonize definitions of corruption crimes that go beyond bribery. These crimes include: misappropriation of funds, abuse of office and obstruction of justice. Illicit enrichment, for example, is only an offence in eight EU states.

According to the proposal, EU member states would be required by law to have a national anti-corruption agency.

Last year, the European Parliament of the EU was rocked with a major corruption scandal surrounding World Cup host Qatar.

The EU and parliament have tried to show their efforts to crackdown on corruption in advance of the European Elections in May 2024. The new measures announced on Wednesday do not specifically target EU institutions.

Officials from the Commission said that they hoped the new rules could come into effect before the EU-wide parliamentary elections due in one year.

Jourova said that she would present her proposal for a new ethics body covering nine EU institutions, including the Parliament to set standards regarding accepting gifts and trips and declaring assets later this month.

Corrupt foreigners

The commission has also revealed proposals for establishing rules to report and verify assets, conflicts of interest and contacts with the private sectors in the public sector. The commission has also revealed proposals to establish rules for reporting and verifying assets, conflicts of interest and contacts with the private sector in the public sector.

The proposal would create a blacklist of sanctions for foreigners who are deemed corrupt.

Josep Borrell, EU’s chief of foreign affairs, said that the EU could use this framework to ban perpetrators from entering the EU or to freeze their assets within the EU.

The list would prevent those on it from entering the EU, and their assets would be frozen in the EU in a similar policy to the US Magnitsky Act.

EU governments will also need to approve the plans on sanctions against corruption in third countries.