AUSTRIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Michael Rohregger, Rohregger Rechtsanwälte
tation of the legal instruments respectively approved by the Council of Europe. With regard to the first two evaluation rounds, the setting up and reinforcement of the Federal Bureau for Anti-Corruption, the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economic Crime and Corruption, and the Anti-Corruption Committee, as well as stronger co-operation between various criminal prosecu - tion authorities and the introduction of a code of conduct for civil servants, were all deemed positive. However, it was also noted that Austria has omitted to implement all previous recom - mendations satisfactorily. The GRECO’s fourth evaluation round com - menced on 1 January 2012 and deals with the topic of “Prevention of corruption in respect of members of parliament, judges and prosecu - tors”. In the evaluation report, the GRECO rec - ommends that Austria implement a series of measures to prevent bribery. While it was con - sidered positive for law-makers to be treated in the same manner as those in other categories of public office in terms of corruption offences, Austria was deemed to rely too much on the deterrent effect of this provision of criminal law. Thus, there needed to be a requirement, for instance, for internal rules and orientation aids within Parliament regarding the acceptance, valuation and disclosure of gifts, hospitality and other advantages, including external sources of support made available to parliamentarians. The recommendations stated in the GRECO report were to be implemented by 30 April 2018. The fourth evaluation round (“Prevention of cor - ruption among members of parliament, judges and prosecutors”) is still ongoing. The related evaluation report was published by GRECO in February 2017; the first implementation report in July 2019. This was followed by two interim implementation reports, the first of which was
published in March 2021 and concluded that the low level of compliance with the recommenda - tions remained “globally unsatisfactory” in the meaning of Rule 31 revised, paragraph 8.3 of the Rules of Procedure and asked the head of del - egation of Austria to provide a report on the pro - gress in the implementation of the outstanding recommendations at the latest by 30 September 2021. This report was received as requested and served as a basis for the present Second Interim Compliance Report. The Second Interim Compliance Report evalu - ates the progress made in implementing the out - standing recommendations since the previous Interim Report and provides an overall appraisal of the level of Austria’s compliance with GRECO recommendations. The report concludes that Austria has now implemented satisfactorily or dealt with in a satisfactory manner three of the 19 recommendations contained in the Fourth Round Evaluation Report. Of the remaining rec - ommendations, nine have been partly imple - mented and seven have not been implemented. The fifth evaluation round focuses on “Prevent - ing corruption and promoting integrity in central government (top management functions) and law enforcement agencies”. The corresponding evaluation report was published by GRECO in March 2023. A Compliance Report has not been published yet. The status of implementation of the UNCAC in the member states is also checked by way of peer reviews, whereby the results are summa - rised in reports and recommendations given. The only, and thus the latest, report on imple - mentation of the Convention by Austria dates from 2014 and reviewed the implementation of Chapter III (Criminalisation and Law Enforce -
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