At the JHA Council meeting in Luxembourg on 7 October 2019, the justice ministers of the EU Member States held a debate on EU action against corruption. Points of discussion were:

• Additional action at the EU level to ensure a coordinated, comprehensive and coherent approach to preventing and fighting corruption in EU institutions and Member States;
• Possible added value of an EU-wide assessment instrument for anti-corruption policies;
• Role of the EU in the global fight against corruption;
• Streamlining and modernization of current EU legislation against corruption.

The ministers mainly agreed that a new, comprehensive EU strategy or action plan to fight and prevent corruption should be developed. In this context, the EU should focus on areas in which the EU’s work can bring added value. Possible synergies with existing international instruments should be reviewed in order to avoid duplication of efforts. Lastly, it was concluded that the EU should become a full member of the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) in the future, although further discussion is needed as to what this accession would mean for the EU in practice.