The extent of corruption in Europe is "breathtaking"
and it costs the EU economy at least 120bn euros (£99bn) annually, the European
Commission says.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem (above) has
presented a full report on the
problem.
She said the true cost of corruption was
"probably much higher" than 120bn.
Three-quarters of Europeans
surveyed for the Commission study said that corruption was widespread,
and more than half said the level had increased.
"The extent of the problem in Europe is
breathtaking, although Sweden is among the countries with the least
problems," Ms. Malmstroem wrote in Sweden's Goeteborgs-Posten daily.
The cost to the EU economy is equivalent to the
bloc's annual budget.
For the report the Commission studied corruption in all 28 EU member states.
The Commission says it is the first time it has done such a survey.
National governments, rather than EU institutions,
are chiefly responsible for fighting corruption in the EU.
But Ms. Malmstroem said national governments and the
European Parliament had asked the Commission to carry out the EU-wide study.
The Commission drafts EU laws and enforces compliance with EU treaties.
In the UK only five people out of 1,115 - less than
1% - said they had been expected to pay a bribe. It was "the best result
in all Europe", the report said.
But 64% of British respondents said they believed
corruption to be widespread in the UK, while the EU average was 74% on that
question.
In some countries there was a relatively high number
reporting personal experience of bribery.
In Croatia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Bulgaria,
Romania and Greece, between 6% and 29% of respondents said they had been asked
for a bribe, or had been expected to pay one, in the past 12 months.
There were also high levels of bribery in Poland
(15%), Slovakia (14%) and Hungary (13%), where the most prevalent instances
were in healthcare.
Ms. Malmstroem said corruption was eroding trust in
democracy and draining resources from the legal economy.
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