EU Statement on Agenda item 3: Technical Assistance

EU Statement on Agenda item 3: Technical Assistance

11^th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, Doha, 15-19 December, 2025

Distinguished President, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States. Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, United Kingdom and Ukraine align themselves with this statement.

President,

Corruption is a major barrier to economic growth and sustainable development. Its adverse impact on the economy, according to some estimates, surpasses global official development assistance and constitutes a significant portion of global GDP. Corruption undermines democracy, trust in public institutions, human rights and the rule of law, sustainable economic and social development as well as the fulfillment of human rights.

Corruption is also a significant hurdle in the fight against poverty, disproportionately affecting the poor, marginalized, and vulnerable. It worsens inequalities and has a greater impact on all women and girls, as well as persons with disabilities. Additionally, corruption can be exploited by organized crime and negatively influences security and stability at all levels.

The direct link between sustainable development, accountable institutions, and the fight against corruption is recognized in SDG 16, which specifically calls for the reduction of corruption and bribery in all their forms. The EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2027 recognizes the negative effects of corruption and money laundering in derailing sustainable development, and promotes accountable institutions, equal access to justice, and transparent funding. For all these reasons, the European Union is committed to the fight against corruption, intervening at global, regional, and country level.

The EU remains resolutely committed to supporting anti-corruption efforts in partner countries. International cooperation and technical assistance are a necessity for effective anti-corruption work, as well as an opportunity to share experience and to learn from each other. For the period 2021-2027, the European Commission supports work on anti-corruption in more than 50 partner countries. The EU and its Member States are major contributors to UNODC's budget, a large part of which is dedicated to technical assistance programmes, including for anti-corruption.

Let me highlight three strands of our work:

1. First, our support to national anticorruption reform agendas. Examples include twinning programmes between anticorruption agencies in Zambia, Finland and Germany, support to the digitalisation of the justice system in Kyrgyzstan or building strong anti-corruption frameworks with the support of the UNODC in Papua New Guinea and in Honduras. As an outcome, The EU's technical assistance was one contributing factor to help a country like Nigeria get de-listed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring.

   1. Second, our contribution to standards setting. We have been closely cooperating with UNODC to produce a practical toolkit for developing whistleblower protection frameworks. We are convinced that this document, which also draws inspiration from the standards set by the EU Whistleblower Directive, provides a solid basis to develop and improve legislative frameworks around the globe.

   2. Finally, our convening power. As Team Europe, we are working with specialised agencies from EU Member States and from Africa to combat illicit financial flows and transnational organised crime which are fuelling corruption. With the UNODC, another example is our contribution to anti-money laundering programs aimed at implementing FATF recommendations, as we have done in Libya, or in Bolivia along with a project to combat corruption related to drug trafficking. We have also jointly established specialized judicial centres on corruption and financial crime in Haiti.

We will continue to support partner countries' anti-corruption efforts, and to promote the effective implementation of UNCAC. This holds particularly true in the EU enlargement process. Countries wanting to join the EU need to have solid anti-corruption institutions and policies in place. There are many EU technical assistance projects that support accession and neighbourhood countries in these efforts:

1. Among other initiatives, the EU-Council of Europe Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye provides technical assistance and legal/policy advice in the justice sector, including the fight against corruption. It focuses on strengthening capacity, providing legal expertise, and delivering tailored support to beneficiaries, drawing on local and regional insights to improve sustainability prospects and promote reform ownership.

2. The EU for Integrity Programme supports strengthening the fight against corruption in EU Eastern Partnership countries. The objectives are to strengthen the implementation of anti-corruption reforms, to reinforce law enforcement responses to high-level and complex corruption and to boost business integrity actions. This is done through regional dialogue, enhanced monitoring with engagement from civil society, and in-depth analysis and sharing experiences on law enforcement and business integrity issues.

President,

Let me assure you that the European Union will remain a reliable partner of UNODC in these challenging times and will continue to support its technical assistance efforts both financially and programmatically.

I thank you.