EU/CEE: Perceptions And Experiences Of Corruption In EU Member States

On 3 Feb 2014, the European Commission released its Anti-Corruption Report (COM 2014/38 final)¹, which provides comprehensive analyses of corruption within the EU member states, national preventive measures in force, and suggestions for legislative improvements. With this report, the Commission is striving to provide momentum to a pan-European debate on anti-corruption issues and to assist Member States in identifying ways to improve anti-corruption work at the national level.

73% of Europeans polled in the Report say that bribery and the use of connections is often the easiest way of obtaining certain public services in their country. According to the Report, corruption is perceived as particularly widespread by citizens in the Czech Republic (95%), Slovakia (90%), Hungary (89%) and Poland  (82%). Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Romania are countries lagging behind in the scores concerning both perceptions and actual experience of corruption. In