Anticorruption tools have been implemented to avoid issues in parliament, but they leave loopholes to be exploited.  Matic Zorman / Maison Moderne

Anticorruption tools have been implemented to avoid issues in parliament, but they leave loopholes to be exploited.  Matic Zorman / Maison Moderne

Luxembourg has improved its tools to combat corruption within the Chamber of Deputies, and the judges and prosecutors offices, though some improvements lack conciseness, according to the anti-corruption watchdog Greco.

The Group of States against Corruption (Greco), an initiative within the Council of Europe, on 28 March published its . This document relates to members of parliament, judges and prosecutors-- for members of the grand duchy’s government.

Out of the fourteen recommendations set out by Greco in 2012, Luxembourg has now successfully implemented six, a progress of two implementations since October 2020. Though Greco notes that the grand duchy has been slow in applying the changes to prevent corruption within parliament and the judicial offices, it applauds the efforts made.

Highlighted was the public transparency register adopted in the chamber. This register asks any third party to be signed in officially before meeting with a member of parliament. Any unregistered lobbyist, through this change, should be refused contact by MPs. With the exception of members of the European parliament, state organisations, local political institutions and professional chambers, since December 2021, any contact within or outside of the chamber have to be noted, and mentioned in reports and debates if they impacted the legislative text in progress. Prior to this, deputies only had to mention lobbyists they had met up with in the chamber, and if it had impacted the legislation worked on.

The adopted disclosure requirements for participation in companies, non-trading partnerships, associations, groupings of communes, old-age pensions and leave for political activities was applauded.

However, Greco in several instances pointed out Luxembourg’s lack of illustrative examples, and precision when it came to implementing the recommendations.

The report said that the information on conflicts of interest for MPs as well as lobbying should become more easily accessible, for one. The declaration system in place for the financial situation of deputies prior and during their election, though approved by Greco, should be improved to make sure to leave no interpretation when it comes to defining conflicts of interests.

The anticorruption organism also approved the draft revision of Chapter IV of the constitution, which would “enshrine the independence of the prosecution service at the highest legal level.” So far, this revision has however not been adopted. Greco also said that the promotion and evaluation of judges and prosecutors--even in higher positions--should be made more transparent and objective.

In terms of consequences for straying from the ethics and conduct codes, Greco in its report states that the chamber of deputies should be more proactive in monitoring and sanctioning the shortcomings of MPs, though, and a national judicial council should still be set up to make sure that ethic codes are respected.

Though the grand duchy has improved its position in the anticorruption watchdog’s eyes, it has until 31 March 2023 to bring up the 8 partly implemented recommendations to a satisfying standard.