Despite its relatively clean image, the EU is losing at least 120 billion euros (US$162 billion) a year to corruption and more than three-quarters of citizens polled think that the problem is widespread in their countries, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom said on Monday.
The awarding of government business and political party financing are two areas dogged by shady dealings, Malmstrom said at a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, adding that less obvious sectors also had problems, for example healthcare, where some patients are forced to pay under the table to obtain necessary treatments.
“Corruption undermines citizens’ confidence in democratic institutions and the rule of law; it hurts the European economy and deprives states of much-needed tax revenue,” Malmstrom said as she introduced a report on corruption by the European Commission.
She said there were “some indications that the crisis has boosted” corrupt practices at the local level, but that the commission did not have sufficient data to be certain.
The commission’s study found that 56 percent of Europeans polled believe that corruption has grown in their countries, a rise from the 47 percent recorded the last time such a study was conducted three years ago. In addition, more than four out of five Europeans surveyed believe that “too-close links between business and politics” are a major source of problems.
The report calls on member states to increase accountability and transparency, particularly in public procurement, which accounts for about 20 percent of the EU’s economy.
The report said that the ownership of bidders for public contracts is rarely checked and at least one country allows public contracts to be awarded to companies with anonymous shareholders.
Malmstrom did not point to any individual examples of corruption, but a PricewaterhouseCoopers study for the EU anti-fraud authorities last year described a case in which an unnamed government entity invited companies to bid on a contract to build two buildings.
The winning bid was 600,000 euros, even though other companies had offered to do the work for 400,000 euros. The corrupt bidding cost the government 50 percent more than it would have had to pay if one of the lower bidders had been awarded the contract.
The commission is seeking to encourage information-sharing among national governments and civic organizations in the hope that more openness will help the EU clean itself up.
Malmstrom said the commission’s estimate that corruption costs the EU 120 billion euros annually was almost certainly too conservative. The figure is equivalent to about 1 percent of the 11.7 trillion euro GDP of the 28-nation bloc. Malmstrom did not provide a breakdown of how officials had arrived at the 120 billion euro figure.
The commission is only the latest organization to point a finger at problems with corruption in Europe.
Transparency International, a nonprofit organization that monitors corporate and government corruption, said in a statement that the report was “an important step in the EU’s collective effort to scale up its anti-corruption efforts.”
However, it added that the commission had failed “to issue detailed recommendations in the area of whistleblowing, access to information and lobbying.”
Transparency International’s global corruption perceptions index shows that the EU contains some of the developed world’s most and least transparent governments.
Transparency International ranks Denmark as tied with New Zealand for the world’s least corrupt government, while Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands also rank in the top 10.
However, Greece is tied with China for 80th place, while Italy, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia all fare poorly. The US shares 19th place with Uruguay in the group’s ranking.
Malmstrom declined to provide a detailed national breakdown from the commission’s statistics, but said: “Obviously the problem is bigger in some countries than others and it is a bigger problem in some of the younger countries,” a reference to newer bloc members from the east.
A survey of companies by the commission showed that 75 percent of businesses said corruption was widespread in their countries.
The worst was the construction industry, where four out of five companies said it was a widespread issue, including nearly 100 percent of construction companies in Greece, Spain and Italy.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia