Featured blog posts

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  Greece: corruption and the crisis

  by Costas Bakouris, Chair of Transparency International's Greek Chapter

  Last month, Greeks went to the polls after two years of ceaseless crisis. After a vote that showed their frustration with the old regime and their desire for change, the question now should be how to tackle the rampant corruption that has driven a wedge between a people and their leaders. Read more

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  Ireland: Political leaders need to tackle fundamental governance gaps

  by Nuala Haughey, Advocacy and Research Manager at Transparency International Ireland

  It is no coincidence that countries suffering most from the European debt crisis also have major problems with corruption. While international indicators suggest that corruption is less pervasive in Ireland than, say, Greece or Spain, its ravaging impact on public finances is just as tangible. Read more

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  Corruption in Greece – a crisis of values

  by Valentina Rigamonti, Transparency International’s Senior Regional Coordinator of Western Europe for Transparency International's Europe Central Asia Department

  Everyone at the moment is interested in the situation in Greece – the impact of the financial crisis, why it ever happened and the future of the country. One way to understand it is to talk to the Greeks themselves, of course. Read more

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  The Leveson inquiry has exposed Britain’s growing corruption problem

  by Chandu Krishnan, Executive Director of Transparency International UK.

  In the past, it may have been easy for British citizens to pretend corruption is a problem that only exists overseas. However, recent revelations now leave no room for denying the UK has its own corruption problem. Read more

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  Italy needs strong anti-corruption laws now

  An interview with Maria Teresa Brassaiolo, Chair of Transparencia Italia

  With Italy once again awash with corruption scandals and parliament delaying the approval of new, tougher anti-corruption laws, Transparency International’s latest assessment of Italy’s ability to fight corruption and the strengths of its institutions, published on 30 March, was well timed. Read more

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  French anti-corruption efforts coming up short

  by Rosie Slater, Assistant Communications Coordinator at Transparency International

  Just after his election victory in 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy said that he wanted to make France into an “irreproachable” republic: clean and corruption free. Five years on, as he campaigns for a second presidential term, just how successful has he been? Transparence International France set out to answer this question. Read more

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  A Hazy Awakening – Corruption risks capturing Hungary

  by Petra Burai, head of research at Transparency International Hungary and co-editor of their 2011 National Integrity Study report

  In the picture of Hungary painted by Transparency International Hungary’s report on the country’s institutions last week, the colours would be quite blunt, with opaque areas in grey representing shady figures and institutions bound together very closely. Read more

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  Health Czech! Any surprising results from the Czech Integrity System assessment?

  by Radim Bureš, Project Manager at Transparency International - Czech Republic.

  Recently TI Czech Republic launched a National Integrity System (NIS) assessment providing a ‘health check’ of the key governance institutions in the country, with special emphasis on how well resourced they are, how they fare on integrity, accountability and transparency, and whether they perform their role in the anti-corruption effort. Read more

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