Anti-corruption legislation and government transparency in Europe

Abstract

Corruption has been described as the abuse of power for private gain and therefore its consequences affect both private and public sectors. However, the most harmful form of corruption is political corruption which is the main point of research of this thesis. The presence of corruption in state institutions undermines the rule of law and destroys the concept of democracy. Therefore, particular preference is given to laws governing Public Administration, Political Funding, and Public Procurement which are relevant to corruption. Recent studies suggest that corruption is on the rise in Europe and despite several efforts made by the EU there still is a general lack of political will to eradicate corruption. The state has evolved into a complex machine and as a result several pathways for corruption have been created. Thus, re-thinking the manner in which corruption is to be controlled is definitely a top priority. Unfortunately, controlling corruption by means of regulation is not at all an easy task. Corruption is influenced by so many external factors that it is impossible to eradicate completely. Furthermore, all the evidence available which calculates the levels of corruption in a State is based on public perception. Therefore, the effect that innovative regulations have on the levels of corruption cannot be accurately established. However, some measure of control is definitely possible and chapters two, three and four provide a comparative analysis between various states with varying levels of corruption. A common cause of corruption which emerged from the research of the above mentioned chapters is overregulation and excessive Red Tape. Wide ranges of complex laws do not diminish corruption but rather encourage it. Furthermore, transparency laws as opposed to harsher criminal laws emerge as a better means of control. This thesis concludes that transparency should be the way forward and a lack of political will to reduce corruption is possibly the main culprit.