Brussels 25/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - The member states of the EU have a very good rating among the least corrupt countries of the world, says the NGO, Transparency International (TI), whose 2008 report was published in Berlin on Tuesday 23 September. Since 1995, the NGO has each year published corruption perception data (CPD) ranking 180 countries according to the results of analysis by an international group of businessmen, experts and academics. The index ranges from 10 for a state seen as “clean” to zero for a state seen as “corrupt”. The 20 “cleanest” states in the world include no fewer than 10 EU member states. States considered the least corrupt are Denmark and Sweden with an index rating of 9.3, followed by Finland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Belgium. France ranks 23rd (6.9) ahead of Spain (28th, 6.5) and Italy is in 55th position (4.8). The worse pupils are Romania (3.8) and Bulgaria (3.6), which come in 70th and 72nd place, just behind Colombia. Countries with the most obvious decline are Bulgaria and the United Kingdom (7.7). Most significant progress has been made by Cyprus (31st) and Turkey (58th). (B.C./transl.jl)