Recital (13)

It is necessary to strengthen the legal framework to combat bribery and to ensure that law enforcement and prosecution authorities are equipped with effective and proportionate tools. In the context of the bribery of public officials, two types of bribery can be distinguished. Active bribery in the public sector occurs where a person promises, offers or gives an undue advantage of any kind in order to influence a public official. Passive bribery in the public sector occurs where a public official requests or receives such undue advantage, or accepts the offer or the promise thereof in order to act or to refrain from acting in a certain manner. Advantages can be tangible or intangible, and pecuniary or non-pecuniary. An advantage is not considered to be undue where, for example, it is permitted by law or by administrative rules or in cases of minimum gifts or gifts of very low value. This Directive should also establish minimum rules on bribery and other forms of corruption in the private sector where the immediate victims include companies that are impacted unfairly and where free competition can be diminished by each bribe. The offence of bribery in the public sector builds on the offences of passive and active corruption defined in Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention on the fight against corruption involving officials of the European Communities or officials of Member States of the European Union and should not be interpreted or applied in a manner that is more lenient than those provisions of the Convention.