Transparency International has warned over the situation in Serbia in the latest edition of its Corruption Perceptions Index released on January 28, and also noted the long-term increase in perceived corruption in Bosnia & Herzegovina, another EU aspiring state.
Serbia’s score on the index that ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption dropped by one point to 38 (on a scale of 1 to 100), its lowest score since 2012.
“The country’s biggest corruption challenges include serious rule-of-law issues, continued democratic erosion and efforts to silence critical voices,” said the report.
As in some other countries in the Central and Southeast European region, notably Hungary, Transparency International pointed to worrying actions taken by the Serbian authorities in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“Serbia took several controversial steps, including suspending Parliament, implementing extensive curfews and inciting violence against protesters. In addition, the police arrested and detained an investigative journalist, while the government restricted access to information on the procurement of medical equipment, and retaliated against healthcare workers who criticised its response to the public health crisis,” said the report.
Another area of concern is the healthcare sector: “After years of neglect, the country’s health system was tested by COVID-19, with dire consequences. Corruption remains an obstacle to medical specialisation and career advancement,” said Transparency International.
Bosnia’s score also dropped by one point between 2019 and 2020, but this came on top of a decline in the country’s score since 2012. In total, Bosnia’s score has dropped by seven points since 2012, one of the more significant declines in the region. As in Serbia, the situation worsened under COVID-19. “During the pandemic, the country experienced numerous violations of human and labour rights, as well as discrimination in economic aid distribution and alleged unlawful procurement of medical equipment," according to the report.
The other countries in the Western Balkans “are also struggling with anti-corruption efforts, despite aspirations towards EU membership,” according to the international anti-corruption watchdog.
Montenegro, also the frontrunner in the EU accession process, had the highest score from the region, 45 points, which put it in 67th place on the global index. Albania has improved its score considerably since 2013, the year the first government led by the Socialist Party under Prime Minister Edi Rama came to power. Albania inched up by one point in the 2020 index. North Macedonia, along with Bosnia, was the lowest ranked country from the Western Balkans.
The four EU members from the region performed better than most of their peers from the Western Balkans.
Slovenia was in 35th place on the index, with a score of 60, making it the “cleanest” country in the Central and Eastern Europe region after Estonia, followed by Croatia with a score of 47.
On the other hand, Romania and Bulgaria remained among the worst performing EU countries, tied with a score of 44 each. Corruption was a major factor behind the mass anti-corruption protests that persisted nightly for several months in Bulgaria in mid-2020, until they were finally called off by the organisers as coronavirus cases started to soar.
However, there are hopes that Romania – once a strong anti-corruption reformer – could reverse the damage done through overhauls of the justice system and efforts to undermine the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) between 2017 and 2019.
The new Prime Minister Florin Citu announced in mid-January that his government has passed a memorandum to enable the country to meet the European Commission's requirements under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), which establishes an "ambitious" timetable.
Voted in with a majority in Parliament after the 2020 general election, the National Liberal Party (PSD) and its reformist ally USR-PLUS are finally in a position to reverse the changes to the justice system made by the now opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) in 2017-2019, which were widely seen as aimed at helping top politicians avoid prosecution in corruption cases.
There are also hopes of improvements in Moldova, following the election of Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) leader Maia Sandu as president at the end of 2020. Sandu aims to replace the years of rivalry between oligarch Vlad Plahotnuic and ex-president Igor Dodon with a pro-EU regime dedicated to economic development through free market reforms and functioning justice. To achieve this, however, she needs to force early elections.