Last year yielded a bumper crop of high-level corruption scandals in the European Union, ending the political careers of ministers and prime ministers in France, Slovenia and the Czech Republic to name but a few. As usual, the pick of the bunch was in Greece, where a former defence minister was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for receiving more than €50 million in bribes while overseeing the purchases of Russian missiles and German submarines.  

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The latter case is notable not only for its audacity, but what else it says about the state of corruption in the EU. It was the first conviction of a senior Greek politician for serious corruption crimes in decades. It involved the misallocation of public funds to companies who allegedly were willing to break the law to secure a contract. It straddled borders, not only because companies from other member states were involved, but also because the proceeds were secreted away in bank accounts and real estate across the EU, often using shell companies to disguise the trail of dirty money.  

More generally, there has been a systematic failure by politicians at all levels across the EU to regulate properly the conflicts of interest that emerge mainly in their dealings with the private sector. The result is this string of scandals in party financing, in public procurement and in lobbying and the ‘revolving door’. There is little incentive for the political class to reform itself, and without sustained external pressure – from civil society, from media, and from international institutions such as the European Commission – the situation is self-perpetuating.  

The Commission’s first anti-corruption report published this week (3 February) confirms the need to keep up the pressure. Time and time again, the failure to effectively investigate and prosecute complex, high-level corruption cases is documented. Enforcement of foreign bribery legislation is the exception rather than the rule. Across the EU, the awarding of government contracts, concessions and licences to the private sector is seen as corruption hotspot, accounting for a large proportion of the estimated €120 billion lost every year to graft. And the spill-over effects from one member state to another are evident, whether it is facilitating tax evasion and organised crime or fuelling banking crises.  

No wonder Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for home affairs, has described the picture the report paints as “breathtaking”. Unfortunately, in the process of taking her breath away, it has rendered her silent on what the Commission and the EU more generally should be doing about this problem. Apart from promising another report in two years, the feeling seems to be that the ball is now firmly in the court of the member states. This would be a mistake for a number of reasons.  

First of all, the Commission’s report correctly identifies that the main corruption problem in the EU is the way that public policies are distorted and public funds misused to favour politically well-connected sectors or networks. Clientelism, cronyism and nepotism are the main issues here, which can lead to the capture of parts of the government and, in extreme cases, the entire state. In an ever more connected European Union, this cannot be ignored.  

Secondly, as the commissioner herself has pointed out, corruption is a threat to the integrity of the single market. If nearly nine out of ten Spanish businessmen surveyed by Eurobarometer are right, and you cannot get a government contract in Spain without political connections, there is no level playing-field and no single market.  

The Commission therefore cannot sit back and wait for member states to respond. It needs to use the legislative and political powers it has to promote integrity, transparency and ethical conduct in public procurement, to ensure that whistleblowers in the public and private sector across the EU are adequately protected and to ensure that there is much greater transparency about who benefits from shell companies and trusts. A monitoring report is all well and good, but it is the bare minimum. What is called for is a comprehensive EU anti-corruption strategy that addresses internal security, internal governance and internal-market dimensions. Getting political buy-in from member states for such a strategy should be a priority for the next Commission.  

Carl Dolan is the director of Transparency International EU.