The European Union has decided to introduce for the first time a common criminal framework against corruption, with uniform definitions of crimes, more severe minimum sanctions, direct responsibility of companies and the obligation for states to adopt national strategies.
The European Parliament has definitively approved and with a large majority (581 votes in favour, 21 against and 42 abstentions) a new directive, provisionally agreed with the Council in December 2025, which will also have direct consequences for Italy. The text will require our country to reintroduce, although perhaps in a different form from the past, the crime of abuse of office, abolished by the so-called Nordio reform desired by Giorgia Meloni’s government.
Contrasting versions
“The abuse of office, canceled in 2024 with the Nordio reform, falls, in fact, through the main door of European law”, exulted Alessandro Zan, member of the PD national secretariat and MEP, after the approval of the text.
But Fratelli d’Italia, Meloni’s party which voted in favor of the directive in the European Parliament, claims that this is not the case, claiming that it is “trivial propaganda but which is based not on real, concrete, objective data, but on narrative elements that serve to bring out some newspapers today”, according to MEP Alessandro Ciriani.
Yet it was the same rapporteur of the text, the Dutch liberal, Raquel Garcìa Hermida-Van Der Walle, who explained after the vote that our country “will have to mandatorily criminalize at least two of the most serious crimes that fall within the scope of abuse of office”. If “the crime of abuse of office has been abolished, it will have to be de-abolished”, specified the rapporteur.
“If I see the votes within the EU Council, Italy voted in favor of these rules. So I hope that the directive is applied” also said the president of the European Chamber, Roberta Metsola.
The abolition in Italy of the crime of abuse of office
In Italy the crime of abuse of office was abolished with law no. 9 August 2024. 114, the so-called Nordio reform, named after the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio who promoted it. The law, which came into force in August 2024, canceled article 323 of the penal code, eliminating a historic case of crimes against the public administration.
The government motivated the intervention with the need to overcome a provision deemed too vague and responsible for the so-called ‘fear of signature’, i.e. the tendency of public officials to avoid decisions for fear of then incurring investigations. However, the choice has opened up a strong debate, because it has removed a tool used to target abuses of the function of a public official, which cannot be prosecuted based on the definition of other more specific crimes.
What the directive says
The directive does not formally reintroduce the crime of ‘abuse of office’ in the historical Italian formulation, but partially recovers its substance through the case of “illicit exercise of public functions”. The text obliges member states to criminally punish “serious violations of the law” committed “intentionally” by a public official in the exercise of his duties or in the failure to carry out a duty.
This is a broad category, which can include decisions adopted in violation of the rules on procurement, competition or administrative impartiality, as well as conduct aimed at unduly favoring third parties or damaging the rights of others. The directive does not impose a detailed definition or rigid constituent elements, but leaves states a margin of adaptation, also allowing the application to be limited to certain categories of officials.
“The illicit exercise of public functions risks undermining citizens’ trust, the rule of law and economic fairness and can cause serious damage to the public interest”, reads the text of the directive. “When identifying serious breaches of the law in question, Member States may take into account aspects such as whether the conduct was carried out with the aim of obtaining an undue advantage for the official concerned or for a third party, or whether it was carried out with the aim of causing harm to the rights or legitimate interests of a person,” specifies the directive.
The text therefore asks Member States to take “the necessary measures to ensure that at least some serious violations of the law” which are “committed by a public official” are “punishable as a criminal offence, if they have been committed intentionally”.
The other points of the directive
In general, the heart of the reform is the harmonization of criminal cases linked more generally to corruption. For the first time, all Member States will have to qualify a series of behaviors in the same way.
The directive establishes that corruption in the public and private sectors, embezzlement, influence peddling and obstruction of justice are crimes throughout the EU. The text clarifies that corruption includes both the active and passive sides, i.e. those who offer an undue advantage and those who receive it to “act or refrain from acting in the exercise of their functions”.
From a technical point of view, this is a minimum harmonization: states remain free to provide stricter, but not more permissive, rules.
Higher penalties and additional sanctions
The directive also introduces common minimum sentencing levels. The most serious crimes, such as corruption with violation of official duties, must be punished with prison sentences of up to at least five years. In addition to prison, additional sanctions are foreseen: fines, disqualification from holding public offices, exclusion from public contracts and loss of authorisations.
A significant innovation concerns the liability of legal entities. Companies can be sanctioned if the crime was committed in their interest. The economic sanctions are particularly high: fines can reach up to at least 5 percent of the annual global turnover or fixed amounts of up to 40 million euros for the most serious crimes.
In practice, if a manager bribes an official to obtain a contract, not only the individual is liable, but also the company which will therefore, hopefully, be more careful in choosing its managers.
More tools for investigations and cooperation
The directive also strengthens cooperation between national authorities and European bodies, such as the European Anti-Fraud Office and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. The jurisdiction of the member states is also expanded: a country can prosecute a crime even if committed abroad, for example when it involves its own citizen or a company established on its territory.
