High levels of corruption persist in Bulgaria and Romania, after their EU accession earlier in 2007, according to Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index published on 27 September. On the index, Bulgaria remains in 64th place, while Romania is 69th in the 180 countries rated, along with Ghana and Colombia. However, the report certifies "significant improvement" for Romania.
Bulgaria scores 4.1 points on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (not corrupt) along with EU accession candidates Croatia and Turkey, still ahead of Romania (3.7), but shortly behind Poland, which only gets a 4.2 grade. In contrast, Denmark (9.4), Finland (9.4) and Sweden (9.3) rank highest among European countries.
Nevertheless, Transparency International's European Director Miklos Marschall says that, overall, enlargement has had a positive effect on new member states. "EU membership had its benefits through external pressure. That is what you can see in Slovenia, Estonia, but also in relatively corrupt countries like Bulgaria and Romania."
The Commission's reports on justice reform and the fight against corruption published in June had proven that little progress has been made in Bulgaria and Romania since the end of 2006 and concluded that "progress in the judicial treatment of high-level corruption is insufficient" (see EurActiv 27/06/07).
Commission Spokesperson Mark Gray told EurActiv that the EU executive had made no new assessment of the situation since June, but was awaiting action plans from the two governments to be presented in mid-October to address the shortcomings pointed out by the previous reports.
The corruption index is based on the perceptions of experts and business people, instead of hard facts. But Marschall argues: "While perceptions can be influenced by many things, overall they give you a realistic picture."
The Commission is to give a detailed assessment of the two countries' progress in in January 2009.
