Country Report Italy

The EU Commission awarded a HERCULE II grant to The Hague University of Applied Science to hold a High Level Seminar on Negotiated Settlements for Corruption Offences. OLAF (European anti-fraud Office) is particularly interested in the development of mechanism to deter grand scale corruption by the use of appropriate penalties. The US experience shows that the possibility of negotiated settlements can have positive effects on the management of the corruption. The extraterritorial effects of this kind of settlements and the adoption of the US model by other States, i.e. UK, urge a European response this emerging practice. The purpose of the seminar was to provide to the EU Commission and Olaf a first round of discussion by Country experts from eight EU member States on the issue. The Country Reports are designed on the basis of a model questionnaire and they were discussed during the two days seminar by the experts. The Country Report concerning Italy provides according the questionnaire a description of the relevant features of the Italian Legal system to evaluate the impact of a EU model of negotiated settlements.