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United Against Corruption
Under the theme 'United against corruption for development, peace and security,' today we celebrate the International Anti-Corruption Day 2016.
A serious issue across the EU, no country, region or community is immune, corruption causes a wide array of financial and social problems affecting education, health, justice, democracy, prosperity and development. Despite having anti-corruption instruments in place, EU countries have not been consistent in implementing them.
EU Member States have in place most of the necessary legal instruments and institutions to prevent and fight corruption. However, the results they deliver are not satisfactory across the EU. Anti-corruption rules are not always vigorously enforced, systemic problems are not tackled effectively enough, and the relevant institutions do not always have sufficient capacity to enforce the rules. Declared intentions are still too distant from concrete results, and genuine political will to eradicate corruption often appears to be missing. Corruption alone is estimated to cost the EU economy EUR 120 billion per year.
At world level, every year EUR1 trillion is paid in bribes while an estimated EUR2.6 trillion are stolen annually through corruption – a sum equivalent to more than 5 per cent of the global GDP. In developing countries, funds lost to corruption are estimated at 10 times the amount of official development assistance.
Political funding
High-profile scandals associated with corruption, misuse of public funds or unethical behaviour by politicians have contributed to public discontent and mistrust of the political system.
Integrity in politics is a serious issue for many Member States. Codes of conduct within political parties or elected assemblies at central or local level are the exception more than the rule. When such codes are in place, they often lack an effective monitoring mechanism or clear sanctioning regulations, rarely leading to the application of dissuasive penalties. In some cases, insufficient accountability has generated a perception of quasi-impunity of political elites.
Concerns in some Member States relate not only to growing public mistrust, but also to a reputational risk in the International context. Politicisation of recruitment for mid-management and lower positions in public administration at central or regional/local level have been highlighted as serious problems. Such practices increase the susceptibility to corruption, raise the risk of conflicts of interests, weaken control mechanisms and affect the credibility of the public administration as a whole.
One of the broader background issues which experience shows to have an impact on corruption is the financing of political parties. Recent large-scale corruption cases involving illegal party funding affected politicians in some Member States. Vote-buying and other forms of undue influence of the electorate were also noted in a number of Member States.
Donations, sponsorship, loans, rewards for public contracts, the absence of any precise definition of election campaign in law and the failure to consolidate political party accounts are some of the weaknesses which are common to several political systems and sources of problems that arise in some Member States.
"Just a way of life!"
Results of Eurobarometer surveys on perceptions of corruption and experience of corruption state that for most countries, the ranking of the Corruption Perception Index, CPI, published by Transparency International, tends to correspond to answers given by the Eurobarometer respondents and it is clear that Member States can be characterised in different ways.
Answers confirm a positive perception and low experience of bribery in the case of Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden. Respondents in these countries rarely indicated that they had been expected to pay a bribe and the number of people who think that corruption is widespread is significantly below the EU average. In the case of the UK, only 5 persons out of 1115 were expected to pay a bribe, less than 1%, showing the best result in all Europe; nevertheless, the perception data show that 64% of UK respondents think corruption is widespread in the country, the EU average is 74%.
In countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia and France, while more than half of the respondents think corruption is a widespread phenomenon, the actual number of people having had to pay a bribe is low. These countries also appear among the good performers on the CPI. Austria shares similar features with this group with the exception of a somewhat high number of respondents who reported to have been expected to pay a bribe.
In some countries a relatively high number of people indicated that they had personal experience with bribery, but with a clear concentration on a limited number of sectors, including Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. In these countries, one sector, namely healthcare, provides the bulk of instances of bribery. There is evidence that structural problems in healthcare provide incentives to pay a bribe for medical staff. Indeed, in all the countries mentioned, the detailed answer show that healthcare is referred to by the highest number of individuals, while all other institutions or sectors, e.g. police, customs, politicians, public prosecutors’ services, etc., were named by less than 1% of respondents. Corruption in a broader sense is perceived as widespread in these countries.
In certain Member States, including Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Italy, bribery seems rare but corruption in a broader sense is a serious concern: a relatively low number of respondents claimed that they were asked or expected to pay a bribe in the last 12 months. While personal experience of bribery is apparently rare, the perception is so heavily influenced by recent political scandals and the financial and economic crisis that this is reflected in the respondents’ negative impression about the corruption situation overall.
As for countries lagging behind in the scores concerning both perceptions and actual experience of corruption, these include Croatia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. In these countries, between 6% and 29% of respondents indicated that they were asked or expected to pay a bribe in the past 12 months, while 84 % up to 99% think that corruption is widespread in their country. Croatia and the Czech Republic appear to make a somewhat more positive impression with slightly better scores than the rest of the countries from the same group.
Countries not mentioned above, Latvia, Malta, Ireland, Cyprus, don't show results that diverge considerably from the EU average on any of these aspects.
At European level, three quarters of respondents think that corruption is widespread in their own country. The countries where respondents are most likely to think corruption is widespread are Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Spain and the Czech Republic, 95% in each. A quarter of Europeans consider that they are personally affected by corruption in their daily lives. People are most likely to say they are personally affected by corruption in Spain and Greece, 63% in each, Cyprus and Romania, 57% in each, and Croatia, 55 %, and least likely to do so in Denmark, 3%, France and Germany, 6% in each.
Around three quarters of Europeans say that bribery and the use of connections is often the easiest way of obtaining certain public services in their country. This belief is most widespread in Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia and Croatia.
Around two in three Europeans think the financing of political parties is not sufficiently transparent and supervised. Most likely to hold that view are respondents from Spain, Greece, and the Czech Republic, while those least likely to hold this view are respondents from Denmark, the UK, Sweden and Finland.
Just under a quarter of Europeans agree that their Government’s efforts are effective in tackling corruption; around a quarter think that there are enough successful prosecutions in their country to deter people from corrupt practices.
People often think that corruption is "just a way of life", but every society, sector and individual would benefit from standing United Against Corruption.
Countries that successfully attack corruption are far more legitimate in the eyes of their citizens, creating stability and trust. Rooting out corruption allows social and economic development. Equal and fair justice for all is a crucial element for a country's stability and growth, it also helps to effectively fight crime. Ensuring that future generations of citizens are brought up to expect corruption-free countries is one of the best tools to ensure a brighter future. Create an environment where the rule of law prevails and refuse to participate in any activities that are not legal and transparent increase both domestic and foreign investment. Everyone is more willing to invest in countries when they see that funds are not being siphoned off into the pockets of corrupt officials. A transparent and open business community is a cornerstone of any strong democracy.
Corruption in the public sector hampers the efficiency of public services, undermines confidence in public institutions and increases the cost of public transactions. Integrity is essential for building strong institutions resistant to corruption.