04/02/2014
It is the ultimate in chutzpah for the EU to produce a report on
corruption, more so when it fails to identify its own institutions as some of the primary facilitators, if not actual players.
Nevertheless, the fact of the report is no bad thing. As the Commission rightly observes, corruption seriously harms the economy and society as a whole, and at an estimated â¬120 billion, that is a significant wedge.
Many countries around the world, says the Commission, suffer from deep-rooted corruption that hampers economic development, undermines democracy, and damages social justice and the rule of law.
The EU institutions aside, the Member States of the EU, the report says, are not immune to this reality. Corruption varies in nature and extent from one country to another, but it affects all Member States. It impinges on good governance, sound management of public money, and competitive markets. In extreme cases, it undermines the trust of citizens in democratic institutions and processes.
This, in my view, is why countries such as Greece and Italy can never prosper, but the report itself, simply by virtue of its authorship, is fundamentally flawed.
However, there is another reason why the report cannot be trusted. Its definition of corruption goes nowhere near measuring the reality of the phenomenon.
For instance, while in some countries officials take bribes, in countries such as ours, the corrupt transfer of funds from taxpayer to official has been institutionalised. It may not be an offence, but there is no difference in principle in public officials being paid more than they are worth. Effectively, we have legalised corruption.
But then, since the EU itself is ultimately a corrupt organisation, it should be entirely at home with that concept. In the brave new world of European integration, corruption will no longer be a problem. It will have been "legalised" out of existence.
