Albanians, Russians with highest corruption index deterioration in 2021

The comparison that included several European and other developing countries is an index based on a combination of surveys and corruption estimates from 13 different sources.

The index is based on citizens' perception of how corrupt their public sector is, with a score of 0, representing a very high level of corruption and 100 represents a clean assessment of corruption.

As seen by the graph attached Albania leaves only Russia behind in terms of high perceptions of corruption in the public system. During 2015-2021 Albania has a deterioration of the corruption index even in the report itself.

Eurostat notes that effective justice systems are a precondition for fighting corruption. Corruption causes financial damage by reducing investment levels, hindering internal justice and reducing public finances.

Corruption also causes social damage, such as spreading organised crime, trafficking in drugs and people. Corruption also undermines confidence in democratic institutions and weakens the accountability of political leadership.

According to Transparency International, EU member states continued to rank among the least corrupt at the global level of 2021.

Within EU member states, North European states achieve the best results, such as Denmark, Finland and Sweden, which top the ranking, while Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania showed the highest levels of corruption perception across the EU. In countries outside the EU, Albania and Russia had high levels of corruption perception in the public sector.

In 2020, the European Union spent 45 billion euros aimed at strengthening the justice system.

There is a visible relationship between the corruption index and perceived independence over the justice system. Countries with low corruption indexs, such as Denmark, Finland or Sweden, have high percentages of the population's assessment of the independence of the justice system.

By contrast, countries with less optimistic assessments of the justice system have a greater spread of corruption. Eurostat estimates that trust in political institutions is key to effective democracies. On the one hand, citizens' trust increases the likelihood that they will vote democraticly. On the other hand, it provides politicians and political parties with the mandate needed to make decisions that are accepted in society. /Monitor. al