Hungary was ranked as the most corrupt country in the EU for the second straight year, according to the 29th annual Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) report released on January 30.

On a scale of 0-100, with zero being the most corrupt, Hungary scored 43 points, the same as the year earlier, followed by Bulgaria and Romania with 45 and 46 points, respectively.

Hungary’s global ranking improved by one notch to 76th, placing the country in the group of countries such as Bahrain, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Moldova, Northern Macedonia and China.

In 2012, Hungary was ranked 46th globally and 9th in Europe with 55 points when Transparency International adopted its current methodology, but since then, it has seen a steady and rather unprecedented decline. Only Cyprus reported a fall of a similar scale among EU members between 2012 and 2023, dropping 13 points.

Hungary’s results are significantly worse than those of its regional peers. The Czech Republic was ranked 16th with 57 points, Slovakia and Poland were 19th with 54 points each.

Transparency’s CPI ranks countries in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. It is a complex index, often called the “survey of surveys”, drawing on corruption-related data from expert and business surveys carried out by various independent and well-known institutions.

Hungary is increasingly drifting away from the EU centre, commented Jozsef Peter Martin, Executive Director of Transparency International Hungary, after presenting TI's annual corruption report, which examines the state of the rule of law and the impact of corruption on economic performance.

The report devotes a special chapter on public procurement, an illicit instrument that channels public funds to companies with good liaisons with the ruling party.

Viktor Orban's government has made little effort to restore the rule of law and fight corruption, which are the preconditions to continue to enjoy EU funds.

Budapest's actions appear more of a balancing act of reluctantly complying with EU guidelines while defending the interests of cronies, according to Martin, who observes that the implementation of anti-corruption legislation passed last year is "half-hearted, to say the least".