EU should target Ukrainian oligarchs for corruption

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Brussels: The EU should step up efforts to target Ukrainian oligarchs behind “grand corruption” as support for Kiev has failed to curb rampant corruption, the bloc’s spending watchdog said Thursday.

A report by the European Court of Auditors said major EU support for reforms in Ukraine had been “ineffective” in helping tackle corruption worth tens of billions of euros per year. “The EU has long been aware of the links between oligarchs, senior officials, politicians, the judiciary and state-owned enterprises,” the report said.

“However, he has not developed a real strategy to target grand corruption.” Grand corruption is “the high-level abuse of power that benefits a few to the detriment of many, and causes serious and widespread harm to individuals and society,” according to the anti-corruption organization Transparency International .

The EU watchdog recommended that the bloc “analyze and consider a model to prevent individual Ukrainians (oligarchs and people under their influence) suspected of grand corruption from entering and leaving the EU. use their assets “.

The report came as Ukraine’s parliament passed a law aimed at reducing the influence of business tycoons who have long dominated the country by banning them from funding political parties or taking over large state-owned enterprises.

The move came the day after an attack on a senior presidential official who officials said could have been in retaliation for the legislation. The EU is the biggest international donor to Ukraine.

Brussels has committed around 7.8 billion euros ($ 9.2 billion) in support of Ukraine since Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the start of its conflict against Moscow-backed separatists in 2014.

Grand corruption is defined by the leading anti-corruption body Transparency International as “the abuse of high-level power that benefits the few at the expense of the many, and causes serious and widespread harm to individuals and society. “.

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