The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) was established in 1999 under an Enlarged Partial Agreement by the Council of Europe to monitor compliance with the anti-corruption standards developed by the CoE. It currently has 50 members.
Aim of GRECO is to improve the capacity of its members to fight against corruption by ensuring, through a dynamic process of mutual evaluation and peer pressure, they meet the standards of the Council of Europe in the fight against corruption. The Group contributes in fact to identify gaps in national policies to combat corruption, and encourages States to adopt legislative, institutional and practical reforms. GRECO is also a forum for sharing best practices on preventing and detecting corruption.
GRECO monitoring includes:
A procedure of “horizontal” evaluation (all members are valued as part of an evaluation cycle) that ends with recommendations on the necessary reforms in the legislative, institutional and practical fields;
A procedure for “compliance” with the aim to evaluate the measures taken by Member States to implement these recommendations.
GRECO has published on January 19th, 2017 its Fourth Round Evaluation Report on Italy, which focuses on the prevention of corruption amongst members of parliament, judges and prosecutors.