by
N. Peter Kramer
The report was released 6 month later than originally planned and revealed that corruption costs the EU €120 billion a year. The report didn’t give ratings of individual countries, against standard practice of reporting. Information about individual countries was presented as a series of ‘factsheets’.
During the presentation of the report in the Berlaymont, headquarters of the Commission, Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told the media, that ‘corruption undermines citizens’ confidence in democratic institutions and the rule of law’. A special Eurobarometer survey showed indeed that almost half of Europeans believe that bribery is common in public tenders.
Malmstrom’s spokesman told that the Commission has considered assessing the anti-corruption efforts of the EU institutions but ’realised that this is something we have to come back to in a future EU anti-corruption report’. The European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, was not amused and critisised the Commission. “The EU administration has to live up the very highest standards, especially when it comes to transparency, strict rules concerning conflicts of interest and high integrity standards in the area of public procurement’, she said.
A missed opportunity indeed. According to our colleagues of New Europe, it would have been interesting to read more about, for instance, the tender of Europe.eu, a near monopoly on all digital services of the European Institutions. The tender was awarded to Mostra S.A. for €59 million, or €17 million more (40%!) than the lower bidder ESN. Mostra received 251 points and ESN 250. For a half percent better grade despite the 40% price difference the Commission awarded the tender to Mostra.
Earlier this month Transparency International (TI) found that the Commission has a poor record on banning companies. TI is soon set to issue its own assessment on the risk of corruption in the EU institutions.
By: N. Peter Kramer
