BRUSSELS – The auditors of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) believe that at present there are risks of a rollback in the field of reforms in Ukraine, in particular those aimed at combating corruption, and the European Union, when providing any assistance, should clearly prescribe the conditions, the implementation of which is aimed to eradicate this phenomenon.
The main speaker, auditor Juhan Parts, said this in an exclusive interview to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, commenting on the report of the European Court of Auditors (ECA), dedicated to the support of the European Union for reforms in Ukraine in the fight against corruption at a high level. The report was released on Sept. 23.
“To improve the situation in Ukraine [in the field of combating corruption], the EU has used many projects, such as the visa-free dialogue, the macro-financial assistance program. I think the most important thing is how these projects not only give some kind of result, but also influence the overall situation. The title of our report – “Reducing Grand Corruption In Ukraine: Several EU Initiatives, But Still Insufficient Results” probably says everything: there are many initiatives on the part of the EU, but the result is still insufficient,” the auditor voiced an overall assessment of the effectiveness of EU support.
Parts believes that “the main problem for the EU is to be more focused on the root cause of the problem.”
“This is what we mainly focus on. Our report has recommendations for a comprehensive way to focus on these root causes of this kind of corruption, which, as we said, is state capture,” he said. The auditor also listed the main recommendations. The first he mentioned was the need for the EU to rethink its “strategic strategy”.
“Currently, the EU is doing a lot – corruption is always on the agenda. Within the framework of various projects, political dialogue with the Ukrainian government, the EU set its own conditions, but they were not well targeted […] This is question number one – the strategy should focus on large-scale corruption and the root causes of this situation,” Parts said as a first point.
The second point was the need for the EU “to develop a kind of model of how to treat this group of people [oligarchs] in order to limit their ability to operate in the European market, including money laundering.”
Further, the auditor noted the need for “fair competition” and “creation of a well-functioning market” in Ukraine.
“There are many projects in the field of antitrust activities, but the results are not very significant so far. Besides, there is a risk that all this can be easily turned back. Fair competition, antitrust activities, and investment promotion will significantly weaken the power of vested interests,” Parts said.
At the same time, he considers it important for the EU to continue to support civil society and independent media.
“We also focused our attention on all these law enforcement, judicial, anti-corruption special institutions and what else needs to be done there. First, from the EU point of view, and we always speak from the EU point of view, we have serious doubts about how effective is the result of the EU’s investments in building the capacity of Ukrainian institutions. The risk here is that in a situation where corruption has taken over the state, projects for training specialists, conducting appropriate training, providing technology – all this will have a very short-term impact,” he said.
At the same time, the auditor expressed his conviction that the EU “can be tougher in terms of setting conditions, no matter what support it provides, in order to be sure that this technical assistance or knowledge transfer is actually carried out, that there is a readiness and firm commitment on the part of Ukraine to achieve the set goal.”
“Why train prosecutors if they still continue to work in the same system and adhere to the same culture? It is very difficult to change this. There are many projects, a lot of money, but in the end it does not affect the long term,” Parts said.
Answering the question whether the auditors succeeded in identifying the main element of the “grand corruption”, the interlocutor of the agency said: “We are not investigators, we are not engaged in criminal investigation, we look at various data in general, indicators that describe the situation with corruption, starting with international ‘watchdogs’, the IMF, the Commission itself, what is the scale that describes the situation with corruption and its causes. There is no doubt that corruption in Ukraine is widespread.”
