Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport said today that success in the fight against corruption was key to European integration, social and economic development of Serbia as well as citizens, justice and higher quality of public administration.
The corruption affects the economic inequality, human rights observance and efficiency of public services while strengthening organised crime, said Davenport during the official launch of a two-year Twinning project “Preventing and combatting corruption” worth EUR2 million which will enable cooperation between Serbian Anti-corruption Agency and relevant institutions from Italy and Spain.
The goal of the project is to strengthen the prevention mechanism in Serbia and promote an active role of the Anti-corruption Agency, relevant authorities, CSOs and the media.
Key part of the project is raising Agency and Government’s visibility and clarifying the role of all elements of anti corruption, Davenport said.
He said the progress in the fight against corruption would be pivotal in assessing whether Serbia has met the EU criteria.
Director of Serbian Anti-corruption Agency Tatjana Baic said the EU earmarked significant funding for fight against corruption which was at the top of Belgrade’s priorities.
Apart from cooperation with Italy and Spain, the project envisages training of public and civil sector staff as well as media staff, said Tatjana Babic.
President of Italy’s National Anti-Corruption Authority Raffaele Cantone said fighting corruption was important for the economic development of any country.
We want to put our experience at your disposal given that Italy is, unfortunately, very familiar with corruption, Cantone said.
Italian Ambassador in Belgrade Giuseppe Manzo said his country deployed its top experts in the field of fighting corruption in order to boost the process of Serbia’s EU accession.
