Europe’s Dirty Secret: Why EU’s Clean Image is a Lie

 

Europe's pristine reputation is a façade; behind the scenes, corrupt elites pull the strings while EU institutions quietly enable their exploits. For instance, EU funds, meant to promote development, have become a slush fund for corrupt politicians and oligarchs from Hungary to Bulgaria.

Europe's corruption is like an onion: the more you peel, the more it stinks. Beneath the shiny surface of transparent governance and lofty promises, the old habits of corruption still thrive, from the grand corridors of Brussels to the backrooms of southern Europe and beyond. We might call the EU a "union of values," but perhaps those values are a bit more flexible than we think, bending for the rich and powerful. In reality, Europe’s squeaky-clean image is nothing more than a well-polished illusion.

Take Lithuania, one of the poster children for the EU's anti-corruption efforts. It has seen a dramatic rise in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, moving from 48th in the world in 2012 to 34th in 2023. While it’s tempting to celebrate this as a success story, scratch the surface, and you'll see the old machinery of bribes and backdoor deals is still churning. Last November, the former leader of Lithuania's Liberal Movement party was caught with €242,000 stashed in his home and car—cash bribes, no less, courtesy of a real estate conglomerate. It’s corruption in retro style, as even Lithuanian officials half-jokingly admitted. These scandals are not relics of a bygone era; they are today’s headlines.

Lithuania may be a "star pupil" in the EU's class on anti-corruption, but if this is one of the best examples, one has to wonder how dark the situation is elsewhere. Indeed, while the Baltics have made strides, many of their fellow EU members seem to be marching in the opposite direction. Poland, for instance, saw corruption rise under the populist government of the Law and Justice Party, while Romania, despite sending thousands of corrupt officials to jail, faces an almost Sisyphean task as new ones take their place. Hungary under Viktor Orban is an even bleaker story, with many arguing the country is as corrupt as parts of Africa and the Middle East. Oligarchs in Bulgaria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic continue to outlast reformers, making a mockery of any pretense of transparency or good governance.

But it is not just the former Eastern bloc countries that struggle with corruption. Southern Europe, too, has failed to live up to the EU’s lofty ideals. Greece, Italy, and Spain were all promised a brighter, cleaner future after the global financial crisis, but reform efforts have mostly fallen flat. Greece, famously corrupt even before its financial collapse, continues to stagger under the weight of bribery scandals and political cronyism. A Greek prosecutor who dared to investigate a major pharmaceutical company for bribing doctors ended up being fired and then prosecuted herself. Although she was later acquitted, the incident raises serious questions about who really holds power in such states—the government or the corrupt networks embedded within it?

Spain, too, has seen little change since the revelations of widespread graft during the financial crisis. Italy, meanwhile, has improved, but it’s worth noting that it’s only moving away from the extremely low bar set by the scandal-ridden Berlusconi administrations. Let's not forget that Italy’s recent COVID-relief fund became the target of a massive €600 million fraud scheme. European prosecutors have only just begun to unravel this mess, yet we are told that reforms are on the way.

All of this raises an uncomfortable question: Is the EU’s fight against corruption simply a mirage? The numbers, at least, don’t paint a flattering picture. While America has led the world in prosecuting companies for foreign bribery, accounting for nearly 80% of all cases under the 1997 OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, the EU has lagged far behind. It’s not that Europe is incapable of enforcing anti-corruption laws—it’s that its leaders often lack the political will to do so. Sure, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, launched in 2021, has made strides in going after abuse of EU funds. But with just 139 indictments in 2023 and a mere €1.5 billion in frozen assets, it still pales in comparison to America's aggressive efforts.

This enforcement gap doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The billions of euros in EU aid, intended to promote reform, often serve as fuel for corruption. It's the so-called "resource curse" playing out in real-time, where EU funds are treated like natural resources that corrupt actors scramble to exploit. Hungary is the most glaring example, with EU-funded projects consistently lining the pockets of businessmen tied to Prime Minister Orban. But Hungary is not alone. In Bulgaria, Romania, and the Czech Republic, shady agribusinesses and political elites frequently benefit from EU agricultural subsidies. It's as if the very institutions designed to clean up Europe are also helping to dirty it.

Yet the corruption isn't confined to the member states. Even the hallowed halls of Brussels are not immune. In late 2022, a major scandal erupted when Belgian police arrested several members of the European Parliament for accepting bribes from Qatar. And this wasn't a one-off event; nearly a quarter of MEPs have been implicated in ethical scandals, according to investigative reports. When the lawmakers are themselves part of the problem, how can the system ever hope to reform itself?

It is easy to point to Ukraine as the EU’s great hope, the country where anti-corruption efforts are supposedly taking root. But even here, the picture is mixed. Ukrainian reformers may have introduced cutting-edge transparency systems like Prozorro, yet their fight is uphill. Only this year, two key ministers involved in reconstruction were ousted, and the head of the government’s anti-monopoly authority was arrested for allegedly pocketing millions in bribes. Far from being a beacon of reform, Ukraine risks becoming the next Greece—bogged down in corruption despite its aspirations for a cleaner future.

In the end, Europe’s battle against corruption looks less like a triumph and more like a slow-moving disaster. For every win, there are a dozen scandals lurking in the shadows, threatening to pull the rug out from under the EU's shiny narrative of progress. The irony of it all? The more Europe talks about cleaning up, the more it seems like it's just brushing the dirt under the rug. And who knows? At this rate, the EU might just sweep itself into irrelevance.

As the old European proverb goes, "The fish rots from the head." If the EU’s fight against corruption continues at this sluggish pace, the entire body may soon start to smell.