Experts say Madrid’s 10 percent plunge (to 58 points) in Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index over the last four years is linked to the financial crisis and subsequent austerity measures.

The index ranks countries out of 100; the lower the score the higher the impression of public sector corruption.

Yet Greece, also hit hard by the financial crisis, saw its standing improve by nearly 30 percent, albeit from a low starting point.

Scandinavia again dominated the upper echelons of EU standings despite some high-profile corruption scandals.

Hungary meanwhile bucked a generally improving trend in central and eastern Europe.

The EU and western Europe region had the best average score (67) globally, with sub-Saharan Africa the lowest with 33.

TI says its index is the most widely-used global corruption indicator and that it is composed using a "combination of surveys and assessments of corruption, collected by a variety of reputable institutions”.

Spain’s slide

Spain has slipped 10.77 percent in its score, according to Euronews analysis, dropping from 65 points in 2012 to 58 last year.

"I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that there’s been a number of revelations about corruption in Spain since the banking and financial crisis hit the country three or four years ago,” Carl Dolan, director of TI’s EU office told Euronews. "I think what is interesting about those revelations is that it shows how systemic and how all aspects of governance in Spain has been hit by these scandals.

"The figures are there in black and white, it’s a fairly dramatic decline for a country that routinely was in the top 20 of the corruption index before the financial crisis.”

Examples include: the arrest on Tuesday, January 26, of ten people in the Spanish region of Valencia, including the former president of the People’s Party, amid a probe into an alleged corruption network; and the alleged scandal around former People’s Party treasurer Luis Bárcenas, who is accused of making secret cash payments to senior party figures, using a fund of donations from businesses.

Good on Greece?

Greece has been the most improved EU state, leaping 27.78 points. It jumped from 36 in 2012 to 46 last year.

This would suggest the financial crisis has not had the same negative effect it has seemingly had in Spain.

Mr Dolan said: "I think we should put this in context. Greece is routinely the worst-performing EU member state in our Corruption Perceptions Index.

"So this is of course good news that it is improving, but it’s from a very low base and there’s still a long way to go.

"In contrast to Spain what we’re seeing in Greece is serious attempts by the parties there to get to grips with the corruption problem. There’s been lots of investigations into corruption, particularly in the defence sector.”

Hungary bucks improving trend in central and eastern Europe

"We’re seeing a number of countries in the central European region doing better, again from a low base.

"There are improvements: the Czech Republic, Slovakia.

"But Hungary does seem to be bucking the trend. What you’re seeing in Hungary is that the independent institutions of the state, like the media, like the courts, have been brought under the control of one political party.

"The way the Hungarian government has gone about capturing these institutions that should be independent is very troubling.”

Will Poland go the same way as Hungary, given recent turmoil?

"Poland has done very well, since joining the EU, and the last three years it’s made slow, steady improvements. But all that can change if there is not the political will. If governments or political parties go down the path of Hungary – trying to exert a lot of pressure and control over independent institutions – then it’s very possible it could slide back.”

Shining Scandinavia?

Scandinavia comes out top on a lot of Europe rankings and TI’s corruption index is no different.

Denmark, Finland and Sweden made up the top three with Norway not far behind.

Yet TI claims there have been corruption scandals in all four last year: corporate bribery in Denmark, bribery involving Bergen’s mayor, a Sweden firm caught up in bribery allegations in Uzbekistan and the ongoing trial of the former head of Helsinki’s police anti-drug squad, charged with running a drug cartel of his own.

"We’re not saying any of these countries are corruption free,” said Mr Dolan. "They do very well, they have very good systems of governance and instances of petty bribery are very rare.”

Put those EU aspirations on hold?

We also looked at countries on the fringes of the EU, with ambitions to join.

Ukraine, with 27 points, was one of the worst performers in the Europe and Central Asia region.

Albania (36), Serbia (40), Montenegro (44), FYR Macedonia (42) and Turkey (42) all registered scores of under 50.

"If the EU is concerned about corruption then there’s a long way to go [for these countries],” said Mr Dolan. "But a worrying trend recently is that realpolitik has come to trump considerations about human rights and governments’ anti-corruption record.

"We’ve seen this in recent negotiations between the EU and Turkey. In return for co-operation on the migration crisis certain aspects of governance, certain aspects of the quality of institutions will be overlooked. If that is the case I think it’s bad news for the EU and bad news for the whole neighbourhood.”

Corruption perception rankings 2012-2015

You can sort the table by any of the columns, just click the header.

 

Country	2015	2014	2013	2012	% change 2012-2015
Turkey	42	45	50	49	-14.29%
Spain	58	60	59	65	-10.77%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	38	39	42	42	-9.52%
Moldova	33	35	35	36	-8.33%
Cyprus	61	63	63	66	-7.58%
Hungary	51	54	54	55	-7.27%
Iceland	79	79	78	82	-3.66%
Kosovo	33	33	33	34	-2.94%
The FYR of Macedonia	42	45	44	43	-2.33%
Malta	56	55	56	57	-1.75%
Slovenia	60	58	57	61	-1.64%
France	70	69	71	71	-1.41%
Finland	90	89	89	90	0.00%
Switzerland	86	86	85	86	0.00%
Portugal	63	63	62	63	0.00%
Bulgaria	41	43	41	41	0.00%
Georgia	52	52	49	52	0.00%
Kazakhstan	28	29	26	28	0.00%
Denmark	91	92	91	90	1.11%
Sweden	89	87	89	88	1.14%
Luxembourg	81	82	80	80	1.25%
Norway	87	86	86	85	2.35%
Germany	81	79	78	79	2.53%
Serbia	40	41	42	39	2.56%
Belgium	77	76	75	75	2.67%
Armenia	35	37	36	34	2.94%
Belarus	32	31	29	31	3.23%
Netherlands	87	83	83	84	3.57%
Russia	29	27	28	28	3.57%
Ukraine	27	26	25	26	3.85%
Romania	46	43	43	44	4.55%
Italy	44	43	43	42	4.76%
Turkmenistan	18	17	17	17	5.88%
Poland	62	61	60	58	6.90%
Montenegro	44	42	44	41	7.32%
Azerbaijan	29	29	28	27	7.41%
Ireland	75	74	72	69	8.70%
Albania	36	33	31	33	9.09%
Estonia	70	69	68	64	9.38%
United Kingdom	81	78	76	74	9.46%
Austria	76	72	69	69	10.14%
Croatia	51	48	48	46	10.87%
Slovakia	51	50	47	46	10.87%
Uzbekistan	19	18	17	17	11.76%
Latvia	55	55	53	49	12.24%
Lithuania	61	58	57	54	12.96%
Czech Republic	56	51	48	49	14.29%
Kyrgyzstan	28	27	24	24	16.67%
Tajikistan	26	23	22	22	18.18%
Greece	46	43	40	36	27.78%