Last March 16, Transparency International Italia and Transparency International EU Office presented the scorecard evaluation of the Italian Presidency of the Council of the EU in the context of anti-corruption and transparency.  The report shows a few positive aspects in which the Italian Government stood out, such as the priority granted to the themes related to anti-corruption identified by Transparency International: the fourth AML Directive, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the establishment of a European Prosecutor  and the PIF Directive.

A particular merit concerns the commitment of the Italian Presidency to communicate with citizens through a complete and functional website, as well as the effort in involving young people and stakeholders. There’s still a “shadow” as regards budget transparency, perhaps due to the allocation of responsibilities between two different institutional bodies: the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, in charge of the communication and the website, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in charge of the organisational aspects.

Specifically, it has been observed that it is almost impossible for an ordinary citizen to monitor the Presidency’s expenses during the semester, just by visiting the official website. «Full transparency of information on corporate ownership is the best way to engage the wider public in the fight against money-laundering and to unmask the corrupt» said Carl Dolan, Director of the Transparency International EU Office. «We urge the Italian government and other national governments to go beyond the standard set in the EU directive by ensuring full public access and closing potential loopholes».

All things considered it was a positive result, showing a significant commitment by the Italian Government in the field of anti-corruption. Moreover, although the information on budget is still hard to be consulted, thus lacking in transparency, there’s an overall effective expense of 30 million Euros, namely almost half of the amount spent by the two previous Presidencies of Greece and Lithuania.