Mike Beke (Blomeyer & Sanz) is participating in the research team for a project led by the University King Juan Carlos and funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy (2012-2015). The project is titled: ‘Spain’s institutional framework against corruption: Is the repression of corruption in Spain effective?’. Among its objectives is to study the system of detecting, investigating and sanctioning of corrupt acts in Spain and various countries such as Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. In Spain there is currently a lack of quantitative data on the judicial corruption processes under way, on how many of them ended in conviction and on how sanctions are executed. The study aims to gather better information on the “real” levels of corruption in Spain, develop a better understanding of the causes of the problem, the effect of corruption on perception and improve knowledge on how to fight it.

The project’s team consists of researchers coming from, inter alia, the University of Murcia, Malaga and Autónoma of Madrid (Spain), Baltimore and Rider University (US), University of Bologna (Italy), Catholic University of Lovaine (Belgium), and the Deutsche Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften (Germany). Mike Beke will primarily support with case-study work on prosecution of corruption in the Netherlands