Belgium has fallen six places in the global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), produced each year by NGO Transparency International, recording its worst score (69/100) since the index was created in 1995.
Every year, Transparency International interviews business people, risk analysts and researchers to determine how corruption is perceived in 180 countries. The index is then calculated on a scale from 0 (extremely corrupt) to 100 (no corruption).
Denmark has the highest CPI (90), ahead of Finland (88) and Singapore (84). Transparency International is concerned, however, about an overall decline in the 31 countries of Western Europe, with 19 declines reported over one year. The resources deployed in the region to fight corruption are dangerously inadequate, the NGO notes.
Belgium is one of the countries that have fallen behind, with a score of 69 and a ranking of 22nd in the world, behind the Netherlands (78) and Germany (75), but ahead of France (67). This represents a drop of three points and six places compared to 2023.
Marc Beyens, director of Transparency International Belgium, lists several reasons for this drop, including the perception that public funds are not allocated in a neutral manner and the perception that there is not enough prosecution of corruption.
Other reasons include the perception that there is not enough transparency about the assets that politicians have acquired during their term of office; and the perception that there are too close links between politics and the business world.
The NGO points out that regulations should be improved, but that certain existing laws should already be applied to set Belgium back on a fairer political path in terms of integrity, transparency and accountability.
