The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has recently published its Third Round Evaluation Report on Denmark, in which it recommends more severe penal sanctions for corruption offences and further transparency in party funding, among other measures.

The report focuses on two distinct themes: criminalisation of corruption and transparency of party funding, and addresses 14 recommendations to Denmark. GRECO will assess the implementation of these recommendations in early 2011.

Regarding the criminalisation of corruption (theme I), overall, Danish criminal legislation complies with the standards of the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption and its Additional Protocol. However, the offence of trading in influence is not criminalised as such and the bribery provisions are not always as explicit as required by the Convention.

GRECO considers that the penal sanctions for corruption offences are generally low. It recommends the authorities to consider criminalising trading in influence and to increase the criminal sanctions for bribery offences. GRECO also recommends that Denmark improves its possibilities to prosecute corruption abroad and that it gives high priority to the introduction of criminal legislation against corruption – in conformity with the Convention – also in Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Concerning transparency of party funding (theme II), GRECO acknowledges that the electoral system in Denmark is dominated by few political parties and that political funding is, to a large degree, funded by public means.

GRECO appreciates that the existing legal framework concerning political financing has been amended in recent years to provide for more transparency; for example, by publishing party accounts. However, the transparency rules could well be further enhanced through more precise reporting concerning donations over a certain value and by abolishing anonymous donations, which open up the possibility to circumvent the existing transparency rules.

Moreover, there are no regulations which would restrict donations from abroad or, for example, from private companies. Finally, GRECO recommends developing the existing monitoring mechanism, in order to ensure more than just a formalistic checking of party accounts.

(Council of Europe press release)