Corruption ruins the economy of the region on €120 billion euro annually

European Commissioner for Internal Affairs, Cecilia Malmstroem is reporting on the existing problem. She has published an article stating that corruption undermines democracy and promotes the removal of resources from the legal economy.

To compile the report, Cecilia studied the problem in 28 countries - members of European Union. Besides the statistical data she submitted her recommendations to combat corruption in the document. The Commissioner considers that the responsibility for it lies with the distribution of national government, not to the EU institutions. So, every state has to combat this social ailment.

Cecilia Malmstroem in her report indicated that in different countries, corruption is manifested in different ways. In some countries it is more vulnerable to public procurement, in others - finance, municipal authorities. Sometimes even the citizens have to pay bribes in order to obtain the necessary medical assistance.

The study interviewed ordinary citizens. Three-quarters of them believe that corruption is widespread in the EU. 18% of Swedes said they know at least one person who received a bribe. On average in the EU, the figure is 12 %. Despite this, Sweden is considered the least developed country in corruption.

In the EU, there is the European Bureau for Combating fraud - an organization that protects the EU budget from corruption. However, the company has the significantly limited resources. Thus, in 2011 its budget was only €23.5 million euro.