Activities of Marie-Christine VERGIAT related to 2013/2074(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on corruption in the public and private sectors: the impact on human rights in third countries PDF (254 KB) DOC (147 KB)
Amendments (36)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Heading 1
Heading 1
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas corruption can be defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, and whereas acts of corruption include the crimes of bribery, embezzlement, trading in influence, abuse of functions and illicit enrichment, as defined by the UNCAC; whereas corruption may be linked to organised crime operating under collective leadership alongside official structures, particularly where the authorities fail to establish a presence or are unequal to the task of ensuring the democratic functioning of institutions, for example in the area of public order and judicial control, or assuming sole responsibility for law enforcement in accordance with international rules and standards;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas corruption perpetuates and even aggravates unequal, unjust and discriminatory outcomes with regard to the equal enjoyment offlying in the face of compliance with and respect for human rights, be these civil, political and economic or social and, cultural and environmental rights; whereas corruption affects disproportionateprincipally the most disadvantaged and marginalised groups in society, for example barring them from equal access to political participation, administrative services, judicial redresspublic services, justice, safety, land, jobs, education, health and housing, and whereas corruption may affects in particular progress towards ending discrimination, for example through gender equality and women’s empowerment, by limiting women’s capacities to claim their rights;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas acts of corruption and human rights violations typically involve the misuse of power, lack of accountability and the institutionalisation of various forms of discrimination; whereas corruption is more frequent where enforcement of human rights is lacking or absent, and whereas corruption often permeatesseeks above all to undermine the effectiveness of the institutions which normally provide checks and balances andto counter dangerous political, economic and social shifts and are intended to ensure respect for democratic principles and human rights, such as parliaments, law enforcement authorities, the judiciary and, legal systems and civil society;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas corrupt states may enable and even foster violations of rights of their citizens by failing to act in preventing or punishing corruption in public and private sectors, in breach of their international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the other relevant international and regional human rights instruments;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas corruption distorts the size and composition of government expenditure, seriously harming the state’s’ capacity to harness to a maximum its available resourcesheir resources for the benefit of the entire population in order to achieve full realisation of economic, social and cultural rights, and whereas corruption diverts large amounts of funding from economic and social development and investment in the economy, hindering the recovery of countries in economic and social hardship, including EU Member States; whereas this phenomenon is being strongly and increasingly consolidated by tax havens, tax evasion and illicit international transfers of funds;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas delunivery ofsal access to public services enables states to fulfil their international human rights obligations, ensuring the supply of water, food, health, education, housing, security and order as elements of human development, and whereas corruption in public procurement thrives in the absence of openness, transparency, information, competition, incentives, clear rules and regulations that are strictly enforced and also where there are no independent monitoring and sanctions mechanisms;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas widespread corruption, lack of transparency, access to information and inclusive participation in decision-making prevents citizens from holding governments and companies to accountto account for their policies in order to ensure that revenue related to resource and market exploration is used to ensure their human rights; whereas it is incumbent upon governments to do all in their power to combat corruption in public and private companies;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas human rights defenders, media and civil society organisations (CSOs) play a crucial role in the fight against corruption by scrutinising public budgets, monitoring the activities of governments activitnd large companies, including European companies, offering capacity- building skills and expertise and demanding transparency and accountability; whereas journalists reporting on corruption and organised crime are increasingly targeted and harassed by organised crime groups, ‘parallel powers’ and the public authorities, especially in developing countries;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)
Recital J a (new)
Ja. whereas for decades various dictators, in particular those of the insurgent Arab countries, have benefited from the direct or indirect support, silence or inaction of the EU and its Member States regarding the transfer to private accounts of public assets and funds; whereas it is now vital to ensure that assets frozen since the outbreak of the revolutions be returned as soon as possible to the peoples of those countries and to carry out an audit of their debt burden with a view to weeding out debts wrongfully incurred for the personal benefit of dictators and their families rather than for the benefit of the peoples of the countries concerned;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas whistleblowers are vitalmembers of civil society, whether organised or not, have a vital role to play in exposing corruption, fraud, mismanagement and human rights abuses, despite high personal risk, and whereas lack of protection against retaliation, controls on information, libel and defamation laws, and inadequate investigation of whistleblowers’such warnings claims can all deter people from speaking out; whereas the EU has a duty to protect them, particularly by making the most effective use possible of cooperation instruments such as the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR);
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas emergency situations and incoming aid offer opportunities for corruption due to the nature of the activities and the complexity of actions and actors executing them, and whereas these ‘opportunities’ include bribery, extortion faced by aid agency staff, misconduct by aid agency staff, fraud, false accounting, diversion of aid received, and exploitation of the needy and desperate by those in powerfuel the sentiment of despair with regard to public authorities of any kind;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas EU aid to developing countries might be wasted withoutis frequently wasted in the absence of a system which does not include proper checks and balances in the beneficiary countries and the full independent monitoring of the integrity system which accompanies the use of funds; whereas ‘democracy and human rights’ clauses should be implemented in response to such waste on the part of the leaders of the countries concerned and ad hoc organisations set up to enable populations to obtain direct and substantial benefit from EU aid;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas aid donors and international and European financial institutions (IFIs), such as the World Bank (WB) and the, International Monetary Fund (IMF), EBRD and EIB have lost the opportunity to foster true governance reform in debtor countries in the past and have contributed to the corruption and concentration of power by the elites by not assessing and addressing the risks of corruption and degradation of human rights associggravated withby many measures imposed in the context of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), such as the deregulation of economic systems and privatisation of state-owned businesses;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P
Recital P
P. whereas corruption and misconduct by armed forces, the defence sector, law enforcement authorities and peacekeeping forces causes serious risks to the lives, physical integrity, protection and liberty of citizens in developing countries, and whereas the defence sector and defence procurement continue to be characterised by unacceptable levels of corruption and are particularly shielded by secrecy on the basis of national security; whereas the same care should be taken over public procurement for the supply of security equipment, the purpose of which is frequently more severe repression;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital U
Recital U
U. whereas a human rights approach to anti-corruption policies reinforces general awareness that, in addition to public funds, citizens’ individual rights and opportunities are affected by corruption; whereas the close association of the international anti- corruption and human rights movements will raise public awareness and demand for openness, accountability and justice, and whereas linking acts of corruption to human rights violations creates new possibilities for action, especially where corruption can be challenged using existing national, regional, European and international mechanisms to monitor compliance with human rights;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Believes that the EU can only become a credible and influential leader in the fight against corruption if it adequately addresses the problems of organised crime, corruption and money laundering within its own borders; welcomnotes, in this regard, the ‘EU Anti-corruption Report’ to be issued by the Commission; hopes that the identification by the Commission of areas vulnerable to corruption in Member States will help step up anti-corruption efforts, facilitate the exchange of best practices, identify EU trends, and stimulate peer learning and further compliance with EU and international commitments; invites the Commission to consider future EU policy initiatives in the area of anti-corruption, in particular binding legislation on Member States and institutions reflecting the highest standards of transparency and integrity; urges the EU to increasingly remove any conditions which cause it to be complicit or negligent in corruption activities with human rights implications in third countries;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Is of the opinion that the EU should follow the example of the United States in enacting the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 and adopt similar legislation at EU level, as an emblematic and operational framework establishing the link between corruption and breaches of human rights; calls therefore on the Council to adopt a decision establishing a common EU list of officials responsible for the death of Sergei Magnitsky, for the subsequent judicial cover-up and for the ongoing and sustained harassment of his family; adds that this Council Decision should impose targeted sanctions on those officials, such as an EU- wide visa ban and freezing order on any financial assets that they or their immediate family may hold inside the European Union; calls on the Commission to draw up an action plan, with a view to creating a mechanism for listing and imposing similar targeted sanctions against officials of third countries (police officers, prosecutors and judges) involved in grave human rights violations and judicial ‘manipulations’ against whistleblowthose sounding the alerst, journalists reporting on corruption and human rights activists in third countries; stresses that criteria of inclusion on the list should be built up on the basis of well- documented, converging and independent sources and convincing evidence, allowing for mechanisms of redress for those targeted;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Suggests that the Commission produce policy guidelines on the treatment of information provided by whistleblowers regarding misuse of EU funds in third countries, allowing for a proper follow-up, feedback and protection against retaliation, paying particular attention to the situation of the most vulnerable population groups, especially women, in many developing countries as they are particularly prone to be the targets of corruption and to cooperate in exposing it, but also to be more vulnerable and stigmatised for cooperating;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Stresses that the EU must emphasise the importance of implementing the right to participation and the right to access information and mechanisms of public accountability as core principles of democracy in all platforms of dialogue with third countries, including in bilateral relations and at the highest level; suggests that the EU finance projects in third countries to support the enforcement of these principles, especially in countries going through democratisation processes, ensuring gender mainstreamingthat such processes involve civil society, especially human rights defenders, trade unions, particularly vulnerable groups and women, and assisting in the formulation of laws for the effective protection of whistleblowers;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Urges the Commission to propose an extension of the definition of human rights defenders in the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders to include anti-corruption activists and, notably, whistleblowers; highlights the potential role of trade unions and their activists in this regard;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Considers that international financial institutions, like the IMF and the World Bank Group, as well as EU institutions like the EBRD and the EIB, should be instructed by EU Member States to always conduct a corruption risk assessment in the measures imposed on debtor countries through SAPs, in addition to an assessment of the impact of the latter on human rights; takes the view that SAPaid to developing countries should always be accompanied by reforms to foster greater openness, access to information and transparency; insists that adequate, well- resourced and independent systems of oversight should follow the implementation of the programmes, carrying out frequent audits and inspections, with the results subsequently published; takes the view that particular attention should be paid to land-grabbing, forced evictions, defence procurement, separate defence budgets and the financing of military and paramilitary activities in debtor countries; urges these institutions to allow for greater transparency and participatory mechanisms in the negotiation of SAPs and otheir financing programmes; urges EU Member States to use their influence as members of the IMF and World Bank to foster significant reform of these institutions to allow greater democratic scrutiny of their decisions and accountability, and to do likewise for the EU institutions of a similar kind;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on bilateral and multilateral financial institutions, including the World Bank Group, IMF, regional development banks, export credit agencies and private sector banks, to require companies, particularly extractive companies, and governments to comply with the ‘Publish What You Pay’ requirements and/or EITI standards on transparency of payments as a pre- condition for all project support;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Requests EU Member States to amend their criminal laws, where necessary, to establish jurisdiction over individuals and legal entities of any nationality found on their territory who have committed acts of bribery or embezzlement of public funds, regardless of where the crime occurred, as long as the proceeds of those criminal activities are found in the Member State in question or have been laundered there, or the person has a ‘close connection’ with the Member State, namely through citizenship, residence (or registered place of business) or beneficial ownership of a company headquartered or with subsidiaries in the Member State;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Takes the view that defamation/libel laws dissuade possiblemay deter people from reporting of corruption in third countries; urges all Member States, therefore, to lead by example and to de-penalise defamation/libel laws in their legal systems, at least for cases where allegations of organised crime, corruption and money laundering in Member States and abroad are at issue;
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Highlights the fact that tax evasion by financial institutions, companies and wealthy people is one of the causes of national debt; insists therefore on the adoption of coercive measures to stamp out this phenomenon; invites the Member States to work towards the establishment of a single tax area within the EU and to support countries with which the Union has particular ties, notably under the European neighbourhood policy, in their endeavours along similar lines;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Invites the EU Member States to support the establishment of a UN Special Rapporteur on corruption and human rights with a comprehensive mandate; invites those EU Member States that have signed but not yet ratified the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, opened for signature on 27 January 1999, to ratify it at the earliest possible date;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Urges the Commission to propose legislation requiring EU companies to ensure that their purchases do not support perpetrators of corruption, conflicts and grave human rights violations, namely by carrying out checks and audits on their mineral supply chains and publishing the findings; takes the view that mandatory due diligence by EU companies, in line with the guidelines published by the OECD, would protect the reputation ofboost European businesses and make EU human rights and development policies more coherent, especially in areas plagued by conflict;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Calls on the Commission to consider formulating an EURe-emphasises the need for the EU and the Member States to take appropriate measures, including under criminal law, to control and punish companies based on their territory and involved in corruption in third countries; calls on the Commission to formulate a public list of companies which have been convicted of corrupt practices or whose company officials are being indicted for corrupt practices in Member States or third countries; is of the opinion that such listing should prohibit those companies from participating in public procurement processes in EU Member States in the case of conviction, and until a final court decision of exoneration; highlights the fact that ‘blacklisting’ can be effective in dissuading companies from engaging in corrupt activities and provides a good incentive for them to improve and reinforce their internal integrity procedures;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Stresses the crucial role of high standards of integrity amongConsiders it crucial that peacekeeping forces within the UN and the AU, namely in the context of the African Peace Facility should be subject to high standards of integrity; supports the claims for reform of the UN integrity measures system, namely the need to consolidate all investigations of misconduct by officials – including investigations in the field – into one internal oversight entity; calls, therefore, onasks the UN to take steps to ensure, at least, that those who are victimised by peacekeepers have the right to remedy, and to improve reporting mechanisms and the whistleblower protection policyhat whistleblowing and whistleblower protection mechanisms are introduced and applied;
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Stresses the need to develop and update the Generic Standards of Behaviour and the Code of Conduct for EU CSDP missions, to adequately reflect efforts against corruption both in missions and in mission areas; calls on the EU and its Member States to take steps to ensure that those who are victimised by European personnel in peace and rule of law missions have an effective right to remedy; urges the Council to set up safe and adequate reportwhistleblowing mechanisms and an effective whistleblower protection policy; stresses that these mechanisms must be gender- sensitive;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. Welcomes initiatives like the Montreux Document and the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers (ICoC); welcomes the European Union’s recent support for the Montreux Document and the high and growing number of endorsements by EU Member States; highlights, however, that there needs to be better enforcement of established principles; calls on all EU Member States to further develop their national law and regulation in line with the standards set out in the Montreux Document and recommends that they and the EU only enter into contracts with PMSCs that uphold the initiatives’ principles; calls on the EU and its Member States to support the creation of the oversight mechanism of the ICoC, which should be a compliance body capable of handling complaints and issuing dissuasive sanctions (including modifications to contracts requiring additional constraints, issuance of official warnings, financial penalties and temporary or permanent removal of the PMSC from the ICoC system) in order to ensure compliance with, and ultimately hold PMSCs and their suppliers, especially those based in the EU, accountable for, their commitments under the ICoC;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Requests that the EU take a lead in pushing fand the Member States support the creation of an international framework to regulate the activities of PMSCs, establishing a level- playing field so that host states have the authority to regulate PMSCs and contracting states may use their power to protect human rights and prevent corruption; emphasises that such a framework must include dissuasive sanctions for violations, accountability for violators and effective access to remedies for victims, in addition to a licensing and monitoring system to require all PMSCs to submit to independent audits and participate in compulsory training of all personnel in human rights;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Recommends that Member States enhance the implementation of Chapters IV (International Cooperation) and V ( Asset Recovery) of UNCAC, especially to grant more efficiency to mutual legal assistance requested by third countries, notably by interpreting domestic legislation in a way which facilitates the assistance requested and, by de-linking confiscation from conviction in the requesting state for the purposes of providing mutual legal assistance, and by providing their legal systems with the requisite human and financial resources so that cases can be handled properly and swiftly; urges the EU to prioritise this issue of great relevance in third countries going through democratisation processes, namely by addressing legal barriers and the lack of willingness to cooperate from financial centres within the EU, which often maintain an unresponsive and inefficient mutual legal assistance regime;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Emphasises that a human rights-based approach to the asset-recovery process by states emerging from corrupt dictatorships, namely Arab Spring countries, demands that Member States, as recipient countries, understand repatriation not as a discretionary measure but as a duty arising from the obligations of international cooperation and assistance; considers, moreover, that a human rights-based approach requires that repatriated funds be appropriately used in the creation of conditions to assure compliance with human rights obligations and to avoid new corruption-based diversions; requires that the EU assist in ensuring that repatriated funds be appropriately administered in a transparent and efficient manner that benefits the citizens of the country in question, in full compliance with international human rights obligations; urges the EU and the Member States to investigate those authoritarian regimes still being supported through asset recovery and to undertake a radical revision of policy towards them, notably by implementing democracy and human rights clauses; asks the EU and the Member States to support measures for auditing the debt of such countries in order to indentify that which constitutes odious debt;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Calls on the EU and its Member States to take a lead in the UN efforts to ratify and implement the International Arms Treaty, establishing common binding standards, based on international human rights and humanitarian law, to assess international weapons transfers; encourages the EU to go beyond the treaty and set up independent mechanisms to monitor all arms transfers and combat the opaqueness in the arms trade sector and demand far greater transparency, especially in relation to the use of intermediaries and economic/industrial offsets; asks for increased vigilance to be exercised in relation to European arms manufacturers’ exports;