The latest Eurobarometer on the perception of corruption shows that 96 per cent of Romanians “fully agree” that corruption is a major problem in their country, while 78 per cent believe corruption is more widespread in Romania than in other EU member states. Nevertheless, unlike the citizens of states that joined the EU earlier than Romania did, Romanians are not convinced that there is corruption within European institutions too. Thus, while 87 per cent of Austrians, 85 per cent of Swedes, 84 per cent of Portuguese, 83 per cent of Spaniards and 81 per cent of Germans and Greeks believe that there is corruption within European institutions, only 52 per cent of Poles, 56 per cent of Romanians and 57 per cent of Bulgarians believe that this phenomenon exists at the level of EU institutions.
On the other hand, most EU member states have seen an improvement in the perception of police corruption. However, Romania is “a notable exception” to that, the number of Romanians that consider that police corruption has grown going up by 14 per cent.
31 per cent of Romanians answered affirmatively when asked: “In the past 12 months, did someone from your country ask you for a bribe or expect you to give a bribe for the services offered?” Romanians were the EU citizens that gave the highest percentage of affirmative answers to this question. The survey also shows that 61 per cent of Romanian citizens consider that politicians are not doing enough to fight corruption, that percentage being the highest among EU citizens. At the same time, according to the aforementioned source, 79 per cent of Romanians consider that their government is not efficient in fighting corruption.
