00:00Although the EU ranks as the least corrupt region, progress against corruption has stalled over the past decade.
00:07The average score in the EU is 62 out of 100, compared to 42 out of 100 globally,
00:14according to Transparency International's 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index.
00:19Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania are the EU countries where perceived levels of public sector corruption is the highest, according to the NGO.
00:28On the opposite end of the spectrum, Denmark, Finland and Sweden are the EU countries perceived as the least corrupt.
00:36The NGO observed backsliding trends in a few EU countries, such as Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia.
00:42In the last year in Slovakia, there's been campaigns within the government against the independent whistleblowing agency,
00:51impacts on the ability to investigate and prosecute against corruption being rolled back within the country.
00:57The score of traditionally well-performing democracies like France, Sweden and the Netherlands dropped because of sanctions enforcement challenges and integrity scandals, but not only.
01:09Another trend is that these countries have just simply had the eye off the ball when it comes to modernising their anti-corruption framework.
01:15I think the Netherlands and Sweden could particularly be put in that category where they just have not had strong standards when it's come to lobbying transparency or political finance transparency in regards to us knowing who is funding political parties within the country.
01:33On the opposite, the Baltic score has increased as they implemented an effective anti-corruption strategy and improved political finance transparency, the experts said.
01:45In 2025, the EU adopted its first anti-corruption directive to harmonise EU law on combating corruption.
Comments