Croatia is the most corrupt EU member in public procurement and one of the most corrupt overall

Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria lead a group of fourteen EU countries with above-average levels of corruption, and according to the corruption risk index in public procurement, Croatia is at the very top, ahead of Cyprus, Lithuania, and Romania.

Croatia is the EU member state with the highest level of corruption in public procurement and, along with Romania and Bulgaria, ranks among the most corrupt countries in the EU, according to a study commissioned by the European Parliament and conducted by the RAND Europe institute.

Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria lead a group of fourteen EU countries with above-average levels of corruption, the study states, and according to the corruption risk index in public procurement, Croatia is at the very top, ahead of Cyprus, Lithuania, and Romania. Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Latvia lose about 15 percent of their GDP annually due to corruption.

An analysis by the non-profit RAND Europe institute, based on three scenarios and several methodological approaches, showed that corruption costs the European Union between 179 and 990 billion euros annually.

Corruption has a significant social and political impact as it fosters inequality, organized crime, weaker rule of law, lower voter turnout, and distrust towards European institutions, the study states. For these reasons, RAND Europe proposes legislative and regulatory measures at the national levels, one of which is the expansion of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) to a larger number of EU member states.

The CVM mechanism is a measure initiated by the European Commission ahead of Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the EU to assist in their judicial reforms and the fight against corruption and organized crime. The introduction of this mechanism could potentially save Croatia about 2.2 billion euros annually, and the European Union about 70 billion euros, according to the study.

RAND Europe also proposes the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office that would expand the limited scope of OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office, and the introduction of a public procurement system (e-procurement).