Political Corruption and the Path to EU Accession
By: Mieke Löhrer
May 23, 2024
The EU enlargement discussion centers around concerns regarding rule of law and corruption in aspiring member states. This week’s graph shows the variation on the political corruption index among prospective member states in the Western Balkan.
On May 1, 2004, ten countries joined the EU, now marking 20 years since the so-called “Big Bang” - the largest round of EU enlargement. Since then, nine countries have been granted candidate status and started negotiations. Of these, five are situated in the Western Balkans: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Montenegro is currently in the best position to join. The graph also indicates that of the five countries, Montenegro has the lowest level of political corruption.
The European Commission highlights the need for reforms in the areas of rule of law and fighting corruption in order to meet expected standards. The graph shows that Albania has made the most progress in fighting corruption since 2018 with, for instance, the introduction of an anti-corruption body, Spak. However, Serbia has made no progress, and corruption has increased in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia over the past five years.
There remains much to be done to close all 33 negotiation chapters in the book of EU entry.
Note: The directionality of the V-Dem corruption index runs from less corrupt (0) to more corrupt (1) unlike the other V-Dem variables that generally run from less democratic (0) to more democratic situation (1).
