The Council has given final approval to a new EU directive on combating corruption, replacing older instruments with a single framework covering common offences, minimum penalty levels, preventive structures and national implementation deadlines.
The Council on 21 April gave final approval to a new EU directive on combating corruption, completing the legislative process on a measure intended to align criminal-law standards across member states and strengthen prevention, investigation and prosecution in both the public and private sectors. The law replaces the 2003 framework decision on corruption in the private sector and the 1997 convention on corruption involving EU and member-state officials.
According to the Council, the new rules are intended to ensure that core corruption offences are defined and treated in a more consistent way across the Union. The offences listed in the finalised framework include bribery in the public and private sectors, misappropriation, trading in influence, obstruction of justice, enrichment derived from corruption offences, concealment, and certain serious violations linked to the unlawful exercise of public functions. That wider architecture is reflected in the final compromise text, which sets out the agreed legal basis and the scope of the new directive.
One of the central changes is the introduction of common minimum levels for sanctions. Under the Council’s summary of the adopted law, member states will be required to provide for maximum prison terms ranging from three to five years, depending on the offence, so that penalties are not set at levels judged too low for serious misconduct. Legal persons will also face financial sanctions. The Council said companies may be subject to fines ranging from 3 per cent to 5 per cent of total worldwide turnover, or fixed sums ranging from €24 million to €40 million, depending on the offence.
The directive is not confined to punishment. It also places emphasis on prevention and institutional capacity. The Council said member states will have to put in place specialised bodies to prevent corruption and raise public awareness. The draft text itself states that member states should have bodies or organisational units tasked with repression and prevention, while leaving them discretion over institutional design. It also states that where such bodies can take decisions or make recommendations, they should operate without undue interference and with resources and powers proportionate to their tasks.
The legislative text also links the new framework to broader integrity standards. In its recitals, the directive says effective anti-corruption policy should include measures on transparency, conflicts of interest, lobbying and revolving doors, alongside efforts to improve integrity in public administration and encourage robust compliance mechanisms in the private sector. That does not create a uniform EU administrative code on those matters, but it sets a clearer legal expectation that anti-corruption work should extend beyond prosecutions alone.
The Council also presents the directive as an update designed to bring EU law more closely into line with international obligations. It said the measure incorporates standards binding on the Union under the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The compromise text likewise states that the directive draws on obligations and practice associated with UNCAC, while also taking account of the work of other international anti-corruption bodies.
From a legal and practical standpoint, the directive gives member states limited but important room for manoeuvre. The text states that, because it lays down minimum rules, countries remain free to adopt or maintain stricter national criminal-law standards. At the same time, the purpose of the measure is plainly harmonising: reducing divergence in the definition of offences, addressing enforcement gaps and improving cross-border cooperation between competent authorities.
The next step is publication in the Official Journal. The Council said the directive will enter into force 20 days after publication. Member states will then have 24 months to transpose it into national law. A longer deadline of 36 months will apply to provisions dealing with risk assessments and national anti-corruption strategies. That timetable means the political decision has now been taken at EU level, but the practical effects will depend on how rapidly and how fully governments adapt their domestic legal frameworks.
For Brussels, the significance of the file lies less in political declaration than in legal consolidation. The Union is replacing two older instruments with a broader and more detailed directive, extending the list of relevant offences, fixing clearer sanction thresholds and requiring member states to maintain preventive capacity as well as prosecutorial tools. The final adoption on 21 April therefore marks the end of the legislative phase and the beginning of the national implementation phase.
