23:31 16 June 2021
Pandemic exacerbating corruption in Europe
According to Europeans, the problem of corruption has escalated in the European Union during the pandemic, according to a report by Transparency International. Almost a third of the EU population has used personal connections to access healthcare during the Covid-19 crisis. At the same time, EU citizens became more convinced that corruption is a big problem for the EU countries.
The highest rates of bribery were recorded in Romania (22 percent) and Bulgaria (19 percent), and reliance on personal ties was highest in the Czech Republic (54 percent) and Portugal (46 percent).
A significant proportion of Europeans said that their governments were fighting the pandemic in an insufficiently transparent manner. It was felt most by the inhabitants of France, Poland, and Spain.
For the purposes of the report, in the period from October to December 2020, over 40,000 citizens from the 27 EU Member States. The authors of the document noted that health care, in particular, was particularly affected by the problem of corruption as a result of the fight against the pandemic.
