Brussels, 09/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - Accession countries continue to be seriously affected by political corruption of personnel and officials, according to the annual study of the association, Transparency International. The situation has even got worse in Poland, which is head of the European quad and sixty-fourth in the world league tables, behind Peru, Byelorussia and Jamaica. The European Commission denounces corruption in its reports every year as one of the major problems that persist in these ten countries. On 5 November, it will publish its most recent report before accession.
The scores (of 10 for the least corrupt countries up to 0 for the most corrupt) are attributed to the perception held by businessmen and university academics of the public and political spheres. Poland obtained 3.6, the lowest European score. It was closely followed by Slovakia 3.7, Latvia 3.8, Czech Republic 3.9 Neither did Lithuania 4.7, and Hungary 4.8 obtain average scores. Only Estonia 5.5, Slovenia 5.9 and Cyprus 6.1 obtained more worthy scores. Malta was not part of the survey.
Greece 4.3 is the only EU Member State that obtains less than average. Italy is not very far in front 5.3. According to Laurence Cockroft, Director of the British satellite of Transparency International, "the levels of corruption are worryingly high" in these two countries.
On the other hand it is a European country that obtains the highest score with 9.7. Denmark is in 3rd place 9.5, Sweden 6th, Netherlands next with 8.9. Luxembourg 8.7 and the United Kingdom 8.7 are both in 11th place, immediately followed by Austria 8, Germany 7.7, Belgium 7.6 and Ireland 7.5 - accounting for 16th to 18th places. France and Spain 6.9 are in 23rd place, followed by Portugal 6.6.