The approval allowing the Anticor association to intervene in cases of fight against corruption and attacks on probity has not been renewed, a source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared this Wednesday. The previous approval having been canceled by the courts, “the implicit decision of refusal may be the subject of an appeal before the same administrative justice which will be able to rule on its merits”, specified this source. “The possibility for this association as for others to report cases to the courts and to file a complaint remains intact,” the same source assures.
“This decision does not surprise us unfortunately because we are well aware that our actions against corruption deeply annoy the government,” responded Elise Van Beneden, president of the NGO office. “It comes after a six-month investigation during which no malfunction was blamed on us by the government and even though the Prime Minister considered last October that Anticor met all the conditions to be approved,” she said. added.
Double offset
“We are going to challenge this decision before the administrative courts and are in a way relieved to finally be able to demonstrate that the association meets all the criteria to be approved, sheltered from the political considerations of the government,” he said. she announced. In June, the Paris administrative court annulled a decree signed in April 2021 by the then Prime Minister, Jean Castex, which renewed this approval for three years, a decision confirmed by the administrative court of appeal on November 16. The administrative court was seized by two dissidents from the association who considered the procedure for renewing the approval irregular and judged that the association did not meet the conditions required to be approved.
The NGO submitted a new application for approval in June. This was the subject of a deportation by the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti in favor of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, then on December 24, at the last minute, the latter was also deported, entrusting this task to Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna. Since 2015, approval has allowed the association to take legal action in cases of alleged corruption and breach of probity, particularly in the event of inaction by the prosecution.