New Illustration on the level of corruption in European Public Services. - 10.12.2003

 Updating of Illustration 10 f with 2003 data from Transparency International
     

PROMEURO's interest in the level of corruption in Europe, stems from the observation that public debt of Member States seems to be related to the level of corruption of their public administration.. Thus, in  2001, Transparency International  (Illustration 10f) ranked Belgium, Greece and Italy - the 3 EU Member States with the highest public debt - among the most corrupted States. 

Transparency International's  2003 ranking weakens somewhat this relationship since Belgium rises significantly from the 24th  to 17th position, while Belgians still remain the Europeans with the highest public debt in ? per inhabitant.   It will be interesting to check in the near future if this drop in corruption in a EU Member States will also lead to a drop in public debt.

One also note in the new ranking, the significant improvement in the United-Kingdom, Germany, Slovenia, Latvia,.. On the other hand, the relative level of corruption is on the rise in Italy, Greece and in a whole series of candidate countries, particularly Poland (see also Turkey).

Admittedly, this worsening is partly due to the insertion of new countries in the table : Iceland (N° 2), Cyprus (27),... Nevertheless, rising corruption in countries soon to become Member States of the EU, is preoccupying and the European Commission had better re-examine urgently is structural adjustment programmes in these countries where it channels large amounts of money through their administration allegedly to raise their efficiency. 
            Jean-Jacques SCHUL