The unlawful exercise of public functions risks undermining public trust, the rule of law and economic fairness and can cause serious harm to the public interest. In order to prevent such harm, Member States should identify serious violations of law, be they actions or omissions, or both. Such serious violations might include for example the violation of legislative or regulatory provisions designed to guarantee free access and contracts on equal terms for candidates, or the deliberate misapplication of the law by judges or arbitrators. Member States should be able to limit the application of the offence of unlawful exercise of public functions to certain categories of public officials. In identifying the relevant serious violations of law, Member States could have regard to matters including whether conduct is committed in order to obtain an undue advantage for the official in question or for a third party or whether it is committed in order to cause damage to the legitimate rights or interests of a person.
Text as published in the Official Journal, reproduced verbatim (including any typographical quirks of the source). For the authentic version, see EUR-Lex.
