The Special Eurobarometer 534 on Corruption and the Flash Eurobarometer 524 on Businesses’ Attitudes towards Corruption in the EU for 2023 show that the Europeans are becoming more skeptical: over two thirds of respondents believe that corruption is widespread in their country, and every forth respondent states that the situation has worsened over the last three years.
Special Eurobarometer 534 on Corruption
The survey was conducted by the Kantar network between 11 April and 16 May 2023 among citizens of the 27 EU member States. In total, 26 404 respondents from different social and demographic groups took part in the survey.
Acceptability of corruption
Most citizens remain of the opinion that it is unacceptable to offer a remuneration/gift/other benefits in return for public services. At the same time 27% of respondents consider it acceptable to offer a gift to a public official if necessary, 26% - to do a favour, and 16% - to give money.
67% of respondents believe that bribes and connections are often the easiest way to get certain public services, 60% state that corruption is a part of business culture in their country, 50% believe that political connections is the only way to succeed in business in their country.
Pervasiveness of corruption
In total, roughly 70% of respondents (2% more than in 2022) believe that corruption is widespread in their country: in particular, 22% believe that corruption is “very widespread”, 48% state that it is “rather widespread”.
As per citizens, corruption is less widespread in Finland (in this country, only 13% of respondents say that corruption is widespread), Denmark (21%) and Sweden (36%).
At the same time the number of citizens who consider corruption as a widespread phenomenon exceed 90% in certain countries: 97% of respondents in Greece, 96% in Croatia, 93% in Portugal, and 92% in Cyprus and Malta. If compared to the last year, the number of citizens who believe that corruption is widespread in their country has grown in 14 countries, including Malta (+13%), Romania (+7%) and Belgium (+6%).
Some 45% of respondents (+4% if compared to the last year) believe that the level of corruption in their country has grown over the last three years. What is more, 17% state that it “has considerably grown”, whereas 8% believe that the level of corruption has decreased, and other 41% are sure that the level of corruption has remained the unchanged.
Corruption in different areas
The interviewees consider activities in the following areas as the most corruption-prone: politicians and political parties (59%), public procurement (44%), private companies (34%), inspectors in labour, construction, food quality, sanitary control and licensing etc. (32%), issuance of business permits (31%), healthcare system (29%), police and customs (29%), banks and financial institutions (26%), tax authorities (21%) and courts (20%). Only every tenth respondent mentioned the prosecutions service (15%), the social security and welfare authorities (14%) and the education sector (14%).
At the same time over three quarters (78%) of respondents stress that, in their opinion, too close connections between business and politics lead to corruption.
Corruption in daily life
Almost one quarter say they are personally affected by corruption in their daily life with 7% saying they “totally agree” this is the case and 72% saying they disagree. It is noteworthy that the citizens of the countries that joined the UE after 2004 agree more often that corruption is widespread in their daily life.
Only 11% of respondents personally know those who take or took bribes, but in some countries at least every fifth interviewee acknowledged to have such acquaintances: 36% in Greece, 25% in Lithuania, 24% in Slovakia, 23% in Cyprus, and 22% in Croatia and Czechia.
As regards personal experiences of corruption, only 7% of respondents say that they were asked or were expected to provide a gift, service or additional remuneration, other 4% highlighted that they encountered themselves or witnessed corruption in the last 12 months. In total, the number of those who has not witnessed and encountered manifestations of corruption has grown by 4% since 2013.
What is more, only 14% of those who encountered corruption reported to the control bodies accordingly, while 54% of respondents say they do not know where to go in these cases.
The main reasons for which citizens decide not to report corruption are the difficulty to prove anything (according to 47% of respondents), doubts that the guilty will be punished (38%) and absence of protection measures for whistleblowers (32%).
Effectiveness of the fight against corruption
Only 30% of respondents agree that the efforts of the government in countering corruption in their country are effective, whereas 60% (plus 5% if compared to the last year) consider anti-corruption activities as ineffective.
Other 67% of interviewees believe that grand corruption cases are not investigated in a sufficiently effective manner, and 52% state that anti-corruption measures are not implemented in an unbiased manner and are driven by hidden motives.
Almost three out of ten respondents (29%) believe that their country has a sufficient level of transparency and control of financing of political parties, whereas 61% have the opposite point of view.
Flash Eurobarometer 524 on Businesses’ Attitudes towards Corruption in the EU
The survey was carried out by Ipsos European Public Affairs between 20 March and 6 April 2023 in organisations with one or several employees operating in six key sectors: 1) energy, mining, oil and gas, chemicals; 2) healthcare and pharmaceutical; 3) engineering and electronics, motor vehicles; 4) construction and building; 5) telecommunications and information technologies; and 6) financial services, banking and investment. Interviews took place via telephone with someone with decision-making responsibilities in the company (managing director, general manager, CEO, financial director), someone leading the commercial activities (commercial manager, sales manager, marketing manager) or a legal officer. In total, 12 875 interviews were conducted.
Perceptions about corruption
Over six out of ten companies in the EU (65%) believe that corruption is a widespread problem in their country; the number of those who consider this phenomenon as “very widespread” has increased by 4% if compared to 2022, while in some countries over 90% of respondents stress that corruption is widespread: 95% in Greece and Cyprus, 92% in Italy and Romania, and 91% in Croatia.
In spite of the fact that 72% of respondents stress that favouritism and corruption hamper business competition in their country, only 35% of companies interviewed believe that corruption is a problem for conducting business in their country. However, in certain countries the number of dissatisfied with the pervasiveness of corruption exceeds 70% (75% in Romania, 74% in Greece and 72% in Cyprus).
Most respondents (59%) believe that bribery and connections are the easiest way to obtain certain public services in their country, other 38% say that political connections is the only way to achieve success in business in their country.
Types of corruption
As in the previous years, the companies interviewed consider favouritism, i.e. favouring friends and/or family members in public institutions (48%) and business (46%), the most widespread corruptive practice. Other 38% of companies indicate funding political parties in exchange for public contracts or influence over policy making as a widespread type of corruption; offering a gift or trip in exchange of a service is mentioned by 26%, while kickbacks and bribes are selected by 22% each.
It is noteworthy that most respondents believe that even a small gift (worth up to €50) accepted by a public official in return for a service must be considered as a bribe: 25% of representatives of businesses reply that “any gift is a bribe”, and 30% insist that a small gift worth between €1 and €50 must be considered as a bribe.
Besides, three quarters of EU companies (78%) believe that too close connections between business and politics lead to corruption.
Effectiveness of the fight against corruption
In total, slightly more than half of companies (53%) believe that natural and legal persons involved in corruption will be held liable: this indicator is the highest in Estonia (77%) and Denmark (70%), while justice is less credible in Bulgaria (22%) and Slovakia (27%).
Every second company (50%) believes that corruption cases will be most likely detected by the police (prosecution service) or whistleblowers.
However, only 38% believe that the perpetrators will be subject to a serious fine or imprisonment. The majority (58%) of companies do not believe that the person who bribed a high-ranking official will be punished; as regards liability for petty corruption, 43% of respondents believe in just sanctions, while the number of those who are of the opposite opinion is the same.
Most respondents (55%) doubt that anti-corruption measures in their country are enforced in an unbiased manner and with no hidden motives, two thirds (67%) of companies believe that their country has a sufficient level of transparency and control of financing of political parties.
Corruption in public procurement
More than half of the companies interviewed believe that corruption is widespread in public procurement in their country both at the national (53%) and regional and local (54%) levels.
26% of companies that have participated in public procurement believe that corruption impeded their winning the bids.
Roughly six out of ten respondents (61%) believe that procurement documentation commissioned by certain companies is the most widespread corruptive practice in public procurement; over three quarters consider this practice as widespread in Greece (87%), Portugal (79%), Cyprus (78%) and Slovakia (77%).
For reference: the Eurobarometer survey was conducted for the first time by the European Commission in 2007 to analyse perception and experience of corruption by EU citizens. At a later stage, it was divided into two separate surveys with one focused on citizens’ attitude and the other on that of businesses.
