Denmark isn’t doing enough to stop corruption in its government and police force, the Council of Europe‘s anti-corruption watchdog GRECO said Monday, according to the report. The country has only followed through on two out of 14 recommendations that GRECO made back in 2019. One recommendation got partly done, but 11 are still sitting there unfinished. GRECO says Denmark hasn’t made any progress since their last check-up in December 2023. The watchdog wants Danish authorities to take “concrete steps without delay” to fix these problems.
GRECO is the Council of Europe’s group that watches for corruption across member countries. They’ve been pushing Denmark for years to beef up its anti-corruption rules beyond just the basic criminal law stuff. Denmark has laws against bribery, but GRECO thinks that’s not enough. The country needs better systems to prevent corruption from happening in the first place.
For government ministers and their top advisers, GRECO wants Denmark to create a proper code of conduct that spells out what they can and can’t do. They also want regular training sessions about ethics, tougher rules about who can lobby officials, and better disclosure of financial interests. Plus, there should be restrictions on what jobs ministers can take after they leave office. In the police force, GRECO wants stricter rules about cops having second jobs, reviews of where officers go to work after they quit, and maybe requiring them to declare their financial interests. Police also need better training about when they should report problems.
GRECO concluded that Denmark is still in “insufficient compliance” with international anti-corruption standards. They want a progress report by June 30, 2026, to see if things have improved. The group also asked the Council of Europe’s Secretary General to officially notify Denmark’s foreign minister about these shortcomings.
For people working in governance and transparency issues, this shows how even wealthy, well-functioning democracies can struggle with corruption prevention. Denmark has a reputation for clean government, but GRECO’s report suggests there are gaps in the system. The focus on prevention rather than just punishment reflects modern thinking about how to tackle corruption. It’s not enough to arrest people after they break the rules – you need good systems to stop problems before they start.
