Deviance sociology)

Romania's National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) has sent to court 1,250 high-level cases last year, which is the highest number investigated in a year since the founding of the agency, DNA chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi has said.

Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov has met with FBI special agent Davon Mahoney, who works on cases of foreign corruption practices, the prosecuting authority has said.

Mahoney's visit to Sofia has taken place with the cooperation of the US Embassy in Sofia.

Greek authorities announced the arrest of the arms dealer Kostantinos Dafermos for illegal payments relating to an armaments program based on a warrant issued by a corruption magistrate.

Sectoral anti-corruption plans in the spheres of healthcare, energy, agriculture, transport, tax administration and customs authorities, are to be ready by end-October, according to a decision of the National Council for Anti-Corruption Practices announced on Wednesday.

Wednesday's meeting of the Council was closed.

A bill proposing the establishment of a single National Office for Prevention of Corruption uniting all existing anti-corruption entities has failed to pass first reading in Bulgaria's Parliament.

The Bulgarian Parliament will discuss at first reading the law on preventing corruption among high-level public officials on Friday.

The legislation has to guarantee that the fight against corruption will be conducted in a new way and through a new body.

Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva said on Tuesday that the fight against corruption and the judicial reform represented the two sides of the same coin.

Kuneva stated this at a roundtable discussion organised by the Centre for the Study of Democracy, daily Sega reports.

The Center for Democracy, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and the Initiative for Local Development in Kraljevo have launched a joint campaign, "Stop the political employment", aimed at monitoring the Strategy for Combating Corruption in employment at national and local level.

Turkish police detained 30 people in an anti-corruption operation on July 10 in Istanbul.

Police from the Istanbul Finance Bureau conducted searches of 34 different addresses as part of a two-year investigation, security sources said.

President Klaus Iohannis maintains that this time Romania will have a very efficient fight against corruption and the pace at which the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) builds the corruption cases could be an even higher one.