Central, Eastern Europe Citizens Believe Corruption is Growing: Report

A new report by Transparency International, published on Tuesday, says that almost a third of European Union citizens "think corruption is getting worse in their country and almost half say their government is doing a bad job at tackling corruption".

In the countries surveyed by Transparency International in Central and South-East Europe, the percentages are even higher - in Slovenia, 51 per cent of people think that corruption has increased over the past year.

Bulgaria follows Slovenia closely, with 48 per cent believing graft is growing, then Romania with 45 per cent, Croatia with 41 per cent, Hungary with 40 per cent, Poland the 37 per cent and the Czech Republic 29 per cent.

Transparency International surveyed over 40,000 people in all 27 EU countries for the report entitled 'Global Corruption Barometer - EU 2021'.

"While there is no country in which a majority of citizens think that corruption is decreasing, the most positive results come from Slovakia, where 39 per cent of citizens see corruption declining," the report says.

When asked whether government corruption is a problem in their country, 92 per cent of respondents in Croatia answered yes, which puts Croatia at the top of the list of the EU countries whose residents are concerned about graft.

Bulgaria follows with 90 per cent, then the Czech Republic with 85 per cent, Slovakia with 81 per cent, Romania with 80 per cent, Poland and Greece with 72 per cent, and Hungary with 69 per cent.

Transparency International asked EU residents about their experiences with corruption in accessing basic services, such as healthcare and educations, to find out whether they had to pay bribes to get such services.

"Denmark, Finland, and Sweden register the lowest...