On 7 December 2020, a webinar was organised which aimed at discussing the report and recommendations of the expert desk review of the anti-corruption framework of Kyrgyzstan, following the methodology of GRECO first evaluation round. The webinar brought together the authorities of Kyrgyzstan involved in anti-corruption activities – the General Prosecutor’s Office, the State Service for Combating Economic Crime, the Government Secretariat, Secretariat of the Security Council, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The simulated GRECO-style desk review of Kyrgyz legislation and practices, which resulted in an expert report with recommendations for improvement, was conducted following the request from the Kyrgyz authorities to learn more about the GRECO evaluations process and the practical application of Council of Europe standards in the fields of specialised anti-corruption bodies and immunities. In this regard, the webinar provided an opportunity for the Council of Europe to present the main findings and recommendations, and discuss them with the relevant authorities. Amongst the main recommendations underlined by the experts were the need to delineate different authorities’ responsibilities in the implementation of anti-corruption plans and to set up unified mechanism to assess the implementation of the national anti-corruption strategy; to bring the definition of corruption within the national legislation, as well as the provisions on criminalisation of corruption, in line with international standards; to introduce rules for distributing the corruption cases between the anti-corruption law enforcement agencies/departments; to secure the specialisation of investigators in corruption cases; to review and harmonise different provisions on immunities, to abolish the inviolability enjoyed by the judges after termination of their office and to reduce the categories of persons enjoying immunities; etc.

In addition, the webinar provided an opportunity for the Kyrgyz authorities to clarify questions regarding the functioning of GRECO, its methodology, different evaluation rounds, reports structure, its non-compliance procedure, as well as the current trends in the implementation of GRECO recommendations. The authorities of Kyrgyzstan reiterated their interest in joining this Council of Europe anti-corruption monitoring mechanism.

This activity was organised in the framework of the action “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime” within the Central Asia Rule of Law Programme 2020-2023, which is a joint initiative co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe. The action is aimed at strengthening capacities to fight and prevent economic crime in five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.