At its plenary meeting in Paris on 21-22 November 2019, the CCPE adopted its Opinion No. 14 on the role of prosecutors in fighting corruption and related economic and financial crime which takes into account existing standards and instruments of the Council of Europe and other international organisations.
In this Opinion, the CCPE tried to identify the definition of corruption, as well as to gain an insight into the fact that in a significant number of cases, corruption offences are neatly entwined with other phenomena of economic and financial crime, such as fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, embezzlement, etc. The Opinion lists particular challenges faced by prosecution services and individual prosecutors when fighting corruption. It then goes on to highlight institutional requirements and safeguards needed for this task, including legislative framework, resources, budget, staffing, organisational mechanisms and specialisation of prosecutors, allocation of cases and workload, investigation and prosecution tools, transparency and contacts of prosecutors with the media, personal integrity and impartiality of prosecutors, their independence and protection, the need of specific training of prosecutors and international cooperation in the field of fighting corruption and related economic and financial crime.
