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Корупција

Перцепцијата за корупција во ЕУ се зголемува за време на пандемијата

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Ние го користиме вашето пријавување за да обезбедиме содржина на начини на кои сте се согласиле и да го подобриме нашето разбирање за вас. Може да се откажете во секое време.

A recent report issued by Transparency International ЕУ shows a rising number of those who believe corruption in EU member countries is present in a significant part of the public sector, considerably more than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

 “Corruption is a major problem for fragile countries in terms of the rule of law. It starts with excessive bureaucracy, the main cause of corruption”, Cristian Paun, economics university professor told EU Reporter.

Two-thirds of the 40.000 EU citizens surveyed said that corruption is a major problem within their public institutions and more than half think their governments are controlled by private interests raising the issue of business lobby in the EU.

“The exacerbation of corruption is related to the rise of bureaucratic behavior throughout the continent. The idea that you can always solve the imperfection of the market through intervention has given way to unwanted consequences. The larger the state, the more public institutions can be subjected to corruption”, professor Paun explained to EU Reporter.

A particular focus was given in the report to the healthcare system in several EU members states.

The survey found that 29% of the bloc's residents have used personal connections such as well-connected friends or family to receive medical attention. The findings point out to the complicated situation medical systems are in, where citizens urgently require medical assistance and need to deal with the damaging impact corruption has.

Some six percent of EU citizens paid an outright bribe to receive health care, with the numbers far worse in some EU member states. Bribery rates in health care were highest in Romania (22%) and Bulgaria (19%), while relying on personal connections occured most often in the Czech Republic (54%) and Portugal (46%).

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"During a health crisis, using personal connections to access public services can be as damaging as paying bribes. Lives can be lost when connected people get a Covid-19 vaccine or medical treatment before those with more urgent needs", said Delia Ferreira Rubio, the chair of Transparency International.

As shown by the report, personal connections matter most in Portugal, Hungary and the Czech Republic - where half of responds relied on them to get accesses and care.

“Corruption is often a mark of defensive attitude from interest groups, especially in countries with rule of law issues”, explained Paun to EU Reporter.

The report highlights the fact that the pandemic also brought up the issue of transparency amongst EU citizens. Thus "in France, Poland and Spain, 60 percent of respondents or more said their governments acted in a non-transparent manner", Transparency International points out.

The pandemic and restrictions required have in the mindset of those surveyed played an essential role in limiting transparency throughout the EU. This adds to the general feeling across the EU and uttered by a third of the citizens from the 27-country bloc that corruption has got worse over the previous 12 months.

The increase in corruption, coupled with the needs to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic might alter democratic institutions Europe-wide and hurt the very fundamentals of democracies across the continent.

“The people regard this increase in corruption as due to COVID restrictions. Several corruption scandals in various EU countries have shaken the political scene and led to real crises resulting in the fall of various ruling parties. There are enough public details that the leaders in various EU countries used the restrictions imposed by health reasons to hide details about contracts, to use the business opportunities imposed by the pandemic in a cynical way”, Armand Gosu, University of Bucharest professor and Eastern Europe expert told EU Reporter.

The survey singled out Hungary and Poland as countries using the pandemic as "an excuse to undermine democracy" by imposing measures that weaken democratic institutions.

Armand Gosu went on to explain that during this period we saw what the overall feeling of  corruption in the medical system materialized in the form of distrust in the medical staff and authorities. This is obvious if we look at the percentages of vaccinated people in countries where the population has very little confidence in the authorities.

While less than 20 % of people living in Denmark and Finland thought corruption in government was a big problem in their country, more than 85% of those in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain believed it was.

The authors of the report highlight the fact that this is particularly worrying given that member states are preparing to allocate hundreds of billions of euros for post-pandemic recovery.

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