The EU reaffirms its commitment to tackle corruption in the 11th UNCAC CoSP in Doha

From the 15 to 19 of December 2025, delegations from all around the world gathered in Doha to participate in the 11^th Conference of State Parties with the objective of setting the agenda on corruption prevention for the next two years. Combating corruption and illicit financial flows continues to be a priority for the European Union, both for the EU institutions and our Member States.

In the General Discussion, the EU defended the UN Convention Against Corruption as a powerful compass and the only universal reference for all those who fight corruption on a day-to-day basis. It is prosecutors and judges, journalists and whistleblowers, clean businesses, activists and civil society organisations who translate the Convention's high ideals into concrete actions. The EU also pointed out the important role of education in building a strong culture of integrity and anti-corruption and welcomed the cooperation between the EU and UNODC on the development of whistleblower protection frameworks, among other initiatives.

The EU gave an update on the development of its Anti-Corruption Strategy and the negotiations on the EU Directive on combating corruption by criminal law

The new legislation requires Member States to ensure that prevention measures are in place through raising public awareness, risk assessments and promoting a public service culture based on transparency. It will be a crucial step to modernise the EU's anti-corruption legal framework based on the UN Convention against Corruption, while going beyond it in certain respects. The legislation will harmonise the definitions of the main corruption offences across the Union, ensure effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties, and step up the prevention of corruption.

Moreover, as announced by President von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech, the Commission is developing the first EU Anti-Corruption Strategy, which will be presented at the end of next year. It will identify and address potential gaps, reinforce monitoring and improve the overall coherence in our ambition to foster integrity and fight corruption. The Strategy will build on the achievements of the Rule of Law Report and the Directive on combating corruption.On the Implementation Review Mechanism, the EU emphasized the need to address the challenges that were identified in the first phase and underlined that the civil society has an important role to play in the fight against corruption, specifically in peer reviews. The EU welcomed the consensus on the second phase of the IRM, which provides for a structured and proper follow-up in the conclusions of the reviews and enhances transparency in the process.

On technical assistance, the EU stressed the link between sustainable development, accountable institutions and the fight against corruption, as recognized in SDG 16. Ambassador Hallergård reminded the Conference that the EU and its Member States are major contributors to UNODC's budget, and that a large part of it is dedicated to technical assistance programmes, which Brussels considers a "necessity" for effective anti-corruption work.

The Doha Declaration, main outcome of the 11^th CoSP, stresses the importance of addressing the opportunities and risks of new technologies when it comes to combating corruption. Although the Declaration is not as ambitious as the EU would have hoped for, the Union welcomes the importance of addressing emerging challenges such as AI, which should be safe, secure and trustworthy,

In addition to the Doha Declaration, the States Parties negotiated ten other resolutions on topics of strong relevance to the EU such as crimes against the environment and their relation with corruption, the transparency of the funding of political parties and campaigns, and the importance of education to tackle corruption.

After five days of intense negotiations, all eleven resolutions (including the Doha Declaration) were adopted by consensus, proving that despite diverging views and challenges, the international community can find agreement on important matters such as preventing and countering corruption. The EU, which worked extensively to achieve consensus, welcomes the adoption of all the resolutions and looks forward to the twelfth Conference of State Parties, which will take place in Uzbekistan in 2027.