Lecture: The Complexity of Multilevel Anti-Corruption Responses

The Institute for Global Analytics organized the lecture Like an Incoming Tide… It Flows into the Estuaries and Up the Rivers”: The Complexity of Multilevel Anti-Corruption Responses. The event was conducted in partnership with New Bulgarian University and took place on 20 November 2023.

Professor Denitza Topchiyska (New Bulgarian University) moderated the discussion. Dr. Rumena Filipova introduced the topic of anti-corruption as a new area of research of IGA, underscoring that corruption has a deep impact on democracy, eroding trust in the democratic process and restricting political participation. Debates about anti-corruption are fundamental as they deal with and reveal the kind of society we can foster – one based on transparency and clear criteria or opaque ties of dependency. Dr. Stoyan Panov (University of Freiburg) gave a presentation on the currently existing legal framework in Bulgaria for tackling corruption, developments on the EU level and how anti-corruption measures on the national and European level interact. He detailed the perception of corruption and judicial independence in the EU; key patterns of corrupt practices across European countries; the European Commission’s rule of law reports and their assessment of the gaps in the Bulgarian anti-corruption effort; the structure and functions of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO); and rule of Law conditionality for the Next Generation EU / Resilience and Recovery funds.