Corruption is still thwarting the functioning of the justice system in Serbia, a report on battling corruption by BIRN and the Belgrade Center for Security Policy reads. New research conducted by the Belgrade Center for Security Policy and BIRN says that major branches of the Serbian justice system, police and judiciary remain influenced by corruption. “There […]

The cabinet has approved a set of laws on integrity. It is about a draft law on declaring the personal wealth and interests, a draft law on the National Integrity Centre and a draft law on the amendment and completion of some legislative acts, the government’s communication and media relations department has reported. The concerned […]

Macedonia’s Special Prosecution, tasked with probing illegality in high places, has denied wrongdoing after a barrage of criminal charges allege it has pressured potential witnesses.   The Special Prosecution formed in Macedonia to investigate allegations of high-level wrongdoings and corruption has flatly denied allegations that its members have intimidated or molested potential witnesses and thus […]

Višnja Marilović is an accountant in Sarajevo. Her days have a certain rhythm. But the rhythm became arrhythmia the day her boss asked her to file an invoice for 160 beds … kind of an eye-catching number for a small sports center. Unless he was planning on building the world’s biggest blanket fort, something was […]

About 41 percent of Albanians say they have witnessed acts of corruption taking place in their municipal government, according to the results of an Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) public survey conducted for a PASOS project on transparency in the Western Balkans.     And 34 percent said they had seen corruption take place […]

Since 1 January 2016, Europol’s financial intelligence and counter terrorism capabilities have been substantially strengthened by the integration of a decentralised computer network of the European Union Member States’ Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), known as FIU.net. Under the auspices of the EU FIU platform and the renewed provisions set in the IV anti-money laundering Directive, […]

If you could summarise the contents of the European Commission reports under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), published January 27th, in two sentences they would sound something like: – Bulgaria: Something could start to happen – Romania: Something is happening and is gaining speed, it should not stop. Although the EC stresses in its report on Bulgaria that […]

The Corruption Perception Index of 2012 signaled out Albania as the most corrupt country in Europe. Transparency International figured Albania was the most corrupt sountry in Europe, after Kosovo, and the 95th most corrupt place among the 176 nations it monitored at the time. The trend was similarly disappointing until 2014, when Albania was pronounced […]

As the internet becomes more central to our lives, the question grows more urgent: who owns it? OCCRP, in partnership with RISE Project and EurActiv.ro, set out to find out in the Internet Ownership Project.          https://www.reportingproject.net/internetownership/     Funded by the Knight Foundation and The Black Sea Trust, the project examines […]

Perception of corruption in Bulgaria is the highest in the EU, with Denmark viewed as the most transparent, according to a report by activist group Transparency International (TI). The report, published on Wednesday (27 January), is based on polls of experts from around the world on topics including free press, access to budget information, integrity […]