Corruption Perceptions Index 2019 - Executive Summary

WESTERN EUROPE & EUROPEAN UNION Fourteen of the top 20 countries in this year’s CPI are from Western Europe and the European Union (EU), including nine countries from the EU alone. 31 66 /100 COUNTRIES ASSESSED AVERAGE REGIONAL SCORE TOP SCORERS BOTTOM SCORERS ROMANIA FINLAND HUNGARY DENMARK 87 /100 86 /100 85 /100 44 /100 44 /100 43 /100 BULGARIA SWEDEN Despite being the best performing region, with an average score of 66 out of 100, Western Europe and the EU are not immune to corruption. With 87 points, Denmark is the highest-scoring country in the region, followed by Finland (86), Sweden (85) and Switzerland (85). At the bottom of the region are Bulgaria (43), Romania (44) and Hungary (44). With a score of 53, Italy increased by 11 points since 2012 while Greece (48) increased by 12 points during the same period. Both countries experienced concrete improvements, including legislative progress in Italy with the passage of anti-corruption laws 56 and the creation of an anti-corruption agency 57 in both countries. Most post-communist EU member states are struggling to address corruption effectively. Several countries, including Hungary, Poland and Romania, have taken steps to undermine judicial independence, which weakens their ability to prosecute cases of high-level corruption. 58 In the Czech Republic (56), recent scandals involving the prime minister and his efforts to obtain public money through EU subsidies for his company highlight a startling lack of political integrity. 59 The scandals also point to an insufficient level of transparency in political campaign financing. Issues of conflict of interest, abuse of state resources for electoral purposes, insufficient disclosure of political party and campaign financing, and a lack of media independence are prevalent and should take priority both for national governments and the EU. TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL 22