BRUSSELS
The EU Commission says that corruption within Europe costs the European economy around 120 billion euros a year.
In its February 2014 anti-corruption report, the EU revealed that although a number of countries have taken initiatives against corruption in recent years, the measures aimed at tackling this in each member state differ.
Two Euro-barometer surveys were carried out ahead of the report, revealing that 76 percent of respondents think that corruption is widespread in their countries, with the top two countries being Greece (99%), and Italy (97%).
In Lithuania, Spain, and the Czech Republic, 95% of residents taking the survey believe that corruption is an issue in their country.
Fifty-six percent of the respondents think that corruption has increased in their country over the last three years.
In the UK, 64% of British respondents said they believe that corruption is widespread in the UK, while the EU average was 74 percent.
Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, said that corruption undermines the citizen’s trust in democratic institutions, and its rule of law, and overall it harms the European economy by depriving it of tax revenue.
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