Fighting corruption in Eastern Partnership countries: views from the civil society

Fighting corruption in Eastern Partnership countries: views from the civil society

This document was prepared within the project “Civil society participation in policies to combat corruption in the Eastern Partnership countries” that is being implemented by the Ukrainian Institute for Public Policy (Kyiv), International Centre for Human Development (Yerevan), Institute for Public Policy (Chisinau) in cooperation with FRIDE (Madrid) with financial support from the Black Sea Trust, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Project director: Victor Chumak

Authors: Vahan Asatryan, Astghik Injeyan, Oazu Nantoi, Polina Panainte, Irma Pidtepa, Alexandru Platon, Ivan Presniakov, Natalia Shapovalova, Oksana Tarapatova.

Overview

Since 2009, the European Union has been developing its relations with eastern neighbours through the Eastern Partnership (EaP). The new policy is based on “commitments to the principles of international law and to fundamental values, including democracy, the rule of law and the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as to, market economy, sustainable development and good governance.”1 The EaP’s purpose is to promote democratic and economic reforms in partner countries through bilateral relations with the EU and multilateral cooperation. And combating corruption is one of the EaP policy areas to be developed on both a bilateral and multilateral basis.

The EaP has also opened the door for greater civil society participation in ongoing reforms in partner countries to “enhance oversight of public services and strengthen public confidence in them.”2 For this purpose, the EaP Civil Society Forum was set up to represent civil society actors from EaP and EU member countries and interested third states.

This study is intended to shore up the objective of greater civil society involvement in the EaP and the course of reforms in eastern partner countries. The key objective of the study is to present the views of civil society on anti-corruption policies and reforms in the Eastern Partnership countries, to give an overview of foreign—including EU—assistance in this area, and to analyse the role and potential of civil society in combating corruption. The report offers a number of recommendations for international donors, CSOs and the EU on how to make their efforts in assisting anti-corruption reforms in Eastern Partnership countries more effective.

To enforce reforms in governance through multilateral cooperation, an intergovernmental expert panel on countering corruption was set up in 2010. Civil society representatives from EaP countries were invited to participate in the panel’s meetings. Hopefully, this report will serve as a contribution to the work of the panel and to the EaP multilateral platform on democracy, good governance and stability.

The report includes three case studies on Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine. Each was prepared by a team of researchers from one of these countries using a common methodology. The study largely draws on the opinions of local stakeholders in all three countries. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, a questionnaire and expert discussions, the researchers surveyed 90 stakeholders. Conversations were held with state officials—including parliament and government—, civil society representatives and independent experts, journalists and business professionals, in order to record their views on the battle with corruption in their own countries.

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