Sofia, January 28 (BTA) - Bulgaria is last in the EU, along with
 Hungary and Romania, in terms of coping with corruption. This
statement was made by Transparency International - Bulgaria at
Thursday's BTA-hosted news conference presenting the results of
the international Corruption Perceptions Index 2020.

The study, published every year since 1995, contains analyses,
assessments and perceptions of the level of corruption according
 to business representatives, local and foreign analysts in the
respective countries. It is based on independent research.

According to Transparency International, Bulgaria's position in
the Index means that it has done the worst job in the EU in
fighting corruption. With an index of 44, Bulgaria, together
with Hungary and Romania, is at the bottom in the European
Union. It is also 69th in the world rankings.

The researchers said the index was drawn up in the context of
the COVID-19 crisis that highlighted the problem of overlooking
social systems and resulted in limited accountability of
institutions and obstruction of civil control.

Globally, two-thirds of the countries have a score below 50,
which means a systemic problem with corruption, showing
insignificant or next to no progress in handling corruption,
Kalin Slavov said.

In the EU, the most serious negative tendency is observed in
Hungary, whose score fell from 55 in 2012 to 44 in 2020. The EU
average score is 64. Denmark is the top-scoring country,
followed by Finland, Sweden and Switzerland.

In Slavov's words, some studies already point to an
"authoritarian tinge in the manner of state governance, which
regrettably keeps us at such low levels of dealing with
corruption". He added that this was happening against the
backdrop of countries like Estonia, the Czech Republic and
Greece, which have improved their scores.

Vanya Nousheva commented that in the countries with a higher
level of corruption, the ruling elites tend to curtail civil
rights and disregard the democratic standards of governance.
Violations of human rights under the pretext of dealing with the
 epidemic crisis cannot be passed over in silence, she said.

Bulgaria has been last in dealing with corruption for about 20
years, Ognyan Minchev added. This could probably be due to the
fact that it has not reformed its institutions.

The study ends with recommendations that could help limit
corruption. The general guidelines are four: stronger public
supervision of the institutions, transparent and concrete
procedures for public procurement and funding, protection of
democracy and promotion of civil participation, and full-fledged
 access to information./RY/BR