The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has called on Portugal to improve the effectiveness of its system to promote integrity and prevent corruption in the top executive functions of the central government and in law enforcement agencies.
In a 5th evaluation round report GRECO recognises that Portugal has developed an extensive anti-corruption legal and institutional framework, but the effectiveness of this framework depends heavily on the National Anti-Corruption Mechanism and the Entity for Transparency becoming fully operational, which is not yet the case. All persons with top executive functions should be subject to effective integrity checks before joining the Government, as well as to post-employment restrictions, and they should be obliged to file declarations of assets and interests.
As regards the Public Security Police and the National Republic Guard, the authorities need to take measures to achieve transparent and objective recruitment procedures at managerial level, to increase the representation of women at all levels in these services and to establish internal whistleblowing mechanisms. In addition, the integrity vetting of law enforcement officials has to be strengthened and applied at regular intervals.
GRECO will assess the implementation of the 28 recommendations addressed to Portugal in 2025 through its compliance procedure.
