On October 8, MEPs adopted by a show of hands their priorities for the European Commission’s imminent anti-corruption strategy, the bloc’s first, aimed at strengthening prevention, enforcement and integrity across the EU. The move follows the entry into force of the EU anti-corruption directive in May 2026. Parliament warns that perceived impunity can be as damaging to democratic legitimacy as corruption itself.
On prevention, MEPs call for evidence-based corruption risk mapping, stronger rules on public procurement, grants and transparency, harmonised standards on conflicts of interest, gifts, sponsored travel, asset declarations and revolving doors, clearer lobbying rules, and common rules on political financing and transparency around political foundations and intermediaries. EU institutions should be held to strong anti-corruption standards backed by regular review from other EU institutions.
On enforcement, Parliament calls for closer cooperation and data-sharing between national authorities and EU bodies including Europol, Eurojust, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and OLAF, with more resources for the EPPO on serious cross-border corruption, and urges member states that have not joined the EPPO to do so. MEPs link corruption with organised crime, money laundering and asset concealment, call for stronger tracing, freezing, confiscation and recovery of criminal proceeds, flag risks from crypto-assets and opaque ownership structures, and reiterate the call to phase out investor residence (“golden visa”) schemes.
Parliament also wants full EU membership of the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), so EU institutions face the same scrutiny as national authorities, plus common indicators to assess anti-corruption policies, more specific and measurable recommendations in the Commission’s annual rule-of-law reports, and stronger rule-of-law conditionality in the next EU long-term budget. Watchdogs, whistleblower protection and independent judicial and anti-corruption authorities round out the demands. The Commission’s strategy document is the next concrete publication to watch.