This work package is led by the European University Institute. The first part investigates the relation between corruption and organised crime. There is abundant evidence that political corruption and organised crime are closely intertwined. Especially where criminal organisations have control over territories or markets, political actors have often entered into mutually profitable exchange relationships with criminals that sporadically expanded also to other areas of the country where significant economic interests are at stake, especially big infrastructural projects, public contracts, city planning etc. Furthermore, in many cases criminal organisations have set up their own companies in legal markets: construction, waste industry and health sectors are particularly vulnerable to criminal infiltration. Due to the penetration in legal markets, these organisations have progressively joined political-business networks, originally formed by politicians and entrepreneurs, which controlled the bidding processes of large-scale public works in some countries for many years. The relationship resembles an ‘iron triangle’, a sophisticated cartel in which each partner profited from votes, money, protection and public contracts. This work package draws on a variety of approaches in legal, anthropological and sociological work to unravel the impact of organised crime and corruption on public contracting and crime. It also analyses the effectiveness of legislation against organised crime.
The second part studies the impact of corruption on vulnerable groups, and in particular the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation and prostitution. Members of police forces throughout the EU engage in corrupt exchanges with prostitution networks, extorting bribes or even directly running brothels. Criminal networks use corruption to obtain information on investigations, ensure continuity of operations, or to develop monopolies in local markets. Immigration authorities, including embassy or border guards, have also been targeted to ensure legal entries or stays of prostitutes. In EU member states with legalised prostitution criminal groups have corrupted some local administrative authorities in order to avoid brothel regulations. This work package explores the patterns of corruption and anti-corruption in trafficking of women in EU in comparative perspective. A special focus will be put on researching gender sensitive options for fighting corruption employed by organised crime related to human trafficking, e.g. do gender sensitive anti-corruption measures (encouraging and enabling women to seek assistance and report to anti-corruption authorities) produce better tangible results (higher conviction rates, less human trafficking, etc.) in comparison to traditional approaches directly targeting organised crime networks.
On Wednesday, 22 February, 1-2pm, the FP7 ANTICORRP team at UCL is celebrating the launch of the special issue on “Innovations in Corruption Studies” in the Slavonic and East European Review. The special issue emerges from the research by University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies – a major partner in the FP7 […]
Policy & Dissemination Conference The Conference will present results of ANTICORRP Work Package 9. Preliminary Programme: 9:30-9:45 Welcome (Caterina Chinnici, MEP) Introduction about ANTICORRP (Alberto Vannucci, Unipi) 9:45-10:15 Research line 1: Political Corruption and Organised Crime in Europe I. Political corruption and Organised Crime in Europe (Alberto Vannucci, Unipi) II. Policy implications and recommendations (Salvatore […]
Recording from Athens, 9 May 2016, 14:10 – 15:30. Corruption has by now been recognised as a major policy problem across the world. Governments across the European continent, from Greece to Iceland, are trying to address the issue with different approaches. The recent publication of the Panama Papers again highlighted the varying success of these […]
The ECPR General Conference 2016 will take place 7-10 September 2016. The ECPR’s General Conference is the largest political science event in Europe, bringing some 2,000 political scientists together every autumn. The 2016 Conference will be held at Charles University, Prague, in the Czech Republic; the oldest institution of higher learning in Central Europe. The academic programme […]
The 66th Annual International Conference of the Political Studies Association (PSA) will be held 21-23 March 2016 in Brighton, United Kingdom.
ANTICORRP was a large-scale research project funded by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme. The project started in March 2012 and ended February 2017. The full name is Anticorruption Policies Revisited: Global Trends and European Responses to the Challenge of Corruption.
Its central objective was to investigate factors that promote or hinder the development of effective anti-corruption policies.
The project consisted of 20 research groups in 15 EU countries. It was interdisciplinary in nature, and brought together researchers from anthropology, criminology, economics, gender studies, history, law, political science, public policy and public administration.
The project was organised into four thematic pillars, which include 11 substantive work packages.
What factors promote or hinder the development of effective anticorruption policies and impartial government institutions? The ANTICORRP project and the Quality of Government (QoG) invited policy-makers, civil society representatives and academics to a conference in Brussels trying to surmise the final results of the ANTICORRP project. The conference counted among its speakers some of the […]
“Things are moving, things are changing – but they aren’t changing in big steps, they are changing in millimetres” This was one of the conclusions put forward by Drago Kos, Chair of the OECD Working Group on Bribery and member of the ANTICORRP Advisory Board. He took part in a roundtable of anti-corruption experts that […]
Recording from Athens, 9 May 2016, 14:10 – 15:30 (EET). Corruption has by now been recognised as a major policy problem across the world. Governments across the European continent, from Greece to Iceland, are trying to address the issue with different approaches. The recent publication of the Panama Papers again highlighted the varying success of these […]
Using a new quantitative indicator, this European paper finds EU Structural and Cohesion Funds impact grand corruption in Central and Eastern Europe in two ways. One, by increasing the amount of money available for rent-extraction and two, by failing to provide monitoring mechanisms to reduce corruption. As much as 1/3 of EU funds given to public projects in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia are disbursed in irregular, obscure ways, tending to favour certain companies. The authors give several policy recommendations to help the EU protect its investments and ensure procurement processes are transparent and competitive.
This deliverable presents all ANTICORRP policy reports that were published throughout the five year project period. While the individual reports can also be found on this website, this deliverable exemplifies the diversity and breadth of the ANTICORRP project and its efforts to compile policy relevant research. Contributing authors are: Acar, M., A. Bozzini, R. Bratu, […]
ANTICORRP partner Scuola Normale Superiore (SNS) on 21 April 2016 organised a half-day conference in Brussels to present the results of ANTICORRP WP9 to an international audience. The conference focussed on the link between corruption, organised crime and human trafficking. It was thus structured to first present research results on political corruption and organised crime […]
Corruption is believed to be one of the key instruments adopted by organised criminal groups to avoid detection and obstruct counter-trafficking efforts. Although the use of corruption is often mentioned along with human trafficking, few studies have examined the empirical evidence of the factors and mechanisms behind this nexus. This report provides new insights in […]
This report analyses the relationships between trafficking, corruption and organised crime in Croatia. The research finds that the countries of choice for human traffickers in transporting victims are those where indicators suggest a low level of reliability of police work or a high-level of corruption in police departments and among border patrols. In addition, reluctance […]