20 Feb 2012

Eurobarometer Shows Increased Concern About Corruption

The results of the latest Eurobarometer survey, published by the European Commission last week, reveal that citizens continue to see corruption as a central challenge in most European countries, and in some of them corruption is even considered to be increasing.

The overall results for Europe show that almost three quarters of respondents consider corruption to be a major problem in their country. There is, however, enormous disparity among countries: in Greece, for instance, 98% of respondents shared this opinion, while only 19% in Denmark.

Almost half of all respondents declared that corruption has increased in their country. In countries like Slovenia, Cyprus, Portugal, Czech Republic and Romania, this share was more than two thirds.

The survey also raises some questions about European’s awareness regarding corruption and strategies to reduce it. An alarming result was that about 70% of Europeans consider corruption to be unavoidable. Two thirds of respondents also agreed with the statement that corruption is part of the business culture in their country.

Read the article “Corruption on the rise in Europe” on blog.transparency.org. The full Eurobarometer report is available on ec.europa.eu. The picture featured above is from thedaily.sk.