The Foreign Service Journal, June 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2016 31 concerned by signs of potential backsliding that could under- mine support for the greater, generational project of ensuring a Europe that is whole, free and at peace, had made the issue the top priority for their missions. EUR convened two regional workshops for embassy working leads and interagency partners, one in Bucharest and a second in Brussels, to meet important anti-corruption actors, talk through the options available to posts and brainstorm possible solutions. EUR envisages the post action plans as an iterative process. The first drafts were discussed by interested bureaus at State, with feedback aimed at refining the proposed actions and, in particular, sharpening diplomatic “asks” that high-ranking U.S. officials could use when engaging host country counterparts. Assistant Secretary Nuland mandated that such advocacy points move out of the “if time permits” section and into the core bilateral discourse. The bureau struggled with the question of how to leverage assistance programming to complement the high-level diplo- matic engagement in countries that were backsliding on corrup- tion but had been phased out of U.S. assistance, while avoiding projects that would be seen as taking a cookie-cutter approach to a diverse region. Ultimately ACE supported a project through the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor that was pioneered at Embassy Bucharest. Using Democracy Commis- sion funds as seed money, the embassy linked local activists with IT professionals in a competition to develop governance and social justice-related information and communication technology (ICT) tools. This project grew into a broader effort in the Western Balkans that ACE and embassy public affairs offices co-funded. The success of these projects in building a sustained, locally-driven effort led to a broader push to make the most effective of these ICT tools available to other countries in the region. This is cur- rently being implemented by the nonprofit TechSoup. No Magic Bullet If Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity validated the focus on cor- ruption as a vital issue for regional stability and for a country’s ability to defend its sovereignty and choose its own future, the depth of the country’s corruption showcases the challenges in making systemic progress, and the need to continually adjust anti-corruption action plans. As Assistant Secretary Brownfield explains in this issue (see p. 24), INL helped conceptualize and underwrite one of the important successes in Ukraine: the introduction of a “protect and serve” patrol police to replace the notoriously corrupt road militia. In addition, the 2015 introduction of an e-procurement system, ProZorro (“transparent” in Ukrainian), developed by Transparency International Ukraine, has saved tens of millions of dollars by reducing insider deals. Elsewhere, however, progress has been slower. But U.S. leaders from Vice President Joseph Biden to Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt continue to spotlight, both publicly and in private conversations, the need to overhaul the country’s judicial system, particularly the corrupt prosecutorial and court systems. Ukraine, like many countries across the region, has yet to hold “big fish” accountable for corruption. Romania’s intrepid anti-corruption prosecutor, Laura Kovesi, is a model for many in the region to emulate in this regard. There is no single magic bullet proven to eradicate corrup- tion, despite a cottage industry of experts peddling such solu- tions. On the contrary, promoting public awareness, account- ability and integrity in public institutions and civil society pressure for transparent governance is a complex and long-term endeavor. Fortunately, the 2011 Open Government Declaration offers an enduring template of principles and a positive aspirational agenda. The development of effective and accountable institu- tions, including the criminal justice system, is an ongoing pro- cess requiring political will and national ownership to succeed. If we want to see our decades-old vision of a Europe that is whole, free and at peace fully realized, we have our work cut out for us in the coming years. n Rather than imposing a template on posts, EUR encouraged them to identify the main corruption-related issues in their respective societies and tailor proposed responses.