The European Report on Corruption

Corruption in the 28 Member States costs the EU economy around 120 billion Euros per year. That is the implacable conclusion of the first EU Anti-Corruption Report, through which the European Commission gives a detailed picture of the phenomenon across the entire EU. From Sweden to Malta and from Portugal to Greece, neither of the EU countries is immune. The European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmstrom, has stated that the first presentation of the report shows how the Member States can fight corruption through policies that must be implemented and provides suggestions of how that can be done effectively. The report also shows quite clearly that the level of corruption varies from one state to another and there is no corruption-free country in Europe.

Bogdan Matei, 04.02.2014, 13:22

Corruption in the 28 Member States costs the EU economy around 120 billion Euros per year. That is the implacable conclusion of the first EU Anti-Corruption Report, through which the European Commission gives a detailed picture of the phenomenon across the entire EU. From Sweden to Malta and from Portugal to Greece, neither of the EU countries is immune. The European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmstrom, has stated that the first presentation of the report shows how the Member States can fight corruption through policies that must be implemented and provides suggestions of how that can be done effectively. The report also shows quite clearly that the level of corruption varies from one state to another and there is no corruption-free country in Europe.

The most affected fields are, quite predictably, related to administration and politics, more specifically public procurement and political party funding. As regards Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007 and are still being monitored through additional reports under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, there are best practices that can be highlighted. Cecilia Malmstrom too, has stated that there are positive examples in both Romania and Bulgaria, and the efforts made by the two countries have been stressed in the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. Many countries have made efforts, but those efforts have not been enough, the European Commissioner has also said.

According to the EU report, corruption in Romania continues to be a systemic issue, at both low and high level. There are some positive results, as several cases of high-level corruption have been investigated and people prosecuted by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate. However, the overall outcome is unstable and slightly reversible. According to the Directorate, between 2006 and 2012, 36 million Euros from European funds were embezzled, through corruption and fraud.

Public procurement at local level is also extremely vulnerable to corruption. As regards the so-called petty corruption, informal payments are a common practice in the health-care system in Romania, where both doctors and the ancillary staff have very low salaries. 28% of the Romanian respondents that have applied to services provided by public health-care institutions have stated that, besides the legal fees, they have been forced to pay extra money to benefit from those services.