Brussels, 15/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - Even though the numbers are down compared to those in 2009, a large majority of Europeans (74%) still think that corruption is a major scourge in their respective countries, as opposed to 70% in 2009. Unsurprisingly, the country that thinks this the most is Greece with 98% of respondents considering corruption to be a major scourge, as opposed to the country at the lowest end of the spectrum, Denmark, where only 19% of its population considers this as a major problem. These figures were released in the latest Eurobarometer survey published on Wednesday 15 February.
According to the survey, which was carried out in September, almost half of all those questioned (47%) consider that corruption has become worse in their country over the past three years. This was noticeably the case in Slovenia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Portugal, and only one out of ten Europeans (7%) considers that the situation has improved. Citizens still think that corruption is particularly widespread at the level of national (79%), local (76%) and regional (75%) institutions. Amongst Europeans, it is once again the Greeks who are the most convinced that there is corruption at all these three levels, with 95% of respondents claiming this is the case for each administrative level. According to respondents, corruption and abuse of power occurs throughout the public services - national political leaders (57% of respondents) and officials awarding public tenders (47%) are “the most likely to be considered involved in such activities”. Furthermore, 67% believe that corruption is part of their country's business culture (88% of respondents in Greece, Italy and Cyprus).
Overall, only 22% of Europeans consider that proceedings against those guilty of taking kickbacks or accepting bribes are a sufficient deterrent, as opposed to 30% in 2009. Of those questioned in 2011, 77% considered that the sentences meted out against those found guilty were “too light”. Another interesting fact in the survey reveals that amongst Europeans, the Bulgarians (this country, together with Romania, has been subject to close scrutiny since 2007 by the Commission as part of the CVM initiative) are those most convinced by the EU's work to tackle corruption. Bulgarians who consider that the EU has helped reduce this phenomenon in their country number 46%, as opposed to a European average of 29%.
Many Europeans (73%) believe that corruption is also widespread in the European institutions. This is particularly the case in Austria, but a little less so in Poland where “only” 52% of respondents believed this to be the case. Questioned about this issue on Wednesday, Michele Cercone, the spokesperson for Commissioner Cecilia Malmström who is in charge of these questions, was keen to point out that these results were only a “perception” among Europeans and that they obviously did not represent the real facts. The spokesperson emphasised the Commission's zero tolerance policy in tackling corruption and indicated that between 2007 and 2011, 1,000 investigations involving the institutions had been carried out, of which 250 involved European officials. Out of these 250 internal investigations, “corruption was identified in only 15% of cases”, explained Cercone, which was around 30 individuals. These cases involved the abuse of power, conflicts of interests and attempts to influence the allocation of public procurement contracts, for example, explained the spokesman. (SP/transl.fl)