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BERLIN. – A new survey by Transparency International has found that 29 percent of EU residents used well-connected friends or family to receive medical care during the pandemic. At least 6 percent of people paid bribes to access health care.
The coronavirus pandemic has worsened corruption across the European Union, Transparency International said yesterday.
In its annual Global Corruption Barometer report for the EU, the anti-graft watchdog called health care a “hotspot for corruption,” adding that graft is of “particular concern during the current COVID-19 pandemic, when citizens urgently need medical support and vaccinations.”
Transparency International, headquartered in the German capital of Berlin, surveyed more than 40,000 people in the EU’s 27 member states between October and December 2020.
The survey found that 29 percent of the bloc’s residents have used personal connections such as well-connected friends or family to receive medical attention and 6 percent of people paid an outright bribe to receive health care.
Bribery rates in health care were highest in Romania (22 percent) and Bulgaria (19 percent), while relying on personal connections occurred most often in the Czech Republic (54 percent) and Portugal (46 percent).
Many respondents also believed that their governments weren’t handling the pandemic in a transparent way.
In France, Poland and Spain, 60 percent of respondents or more said their governments acted in a non-transparent manner.”
Lives can be lost when connected people get a Covid-19 vaccine or medical treatment before those with more urgent needs,” the report warned.
“It’s crucial that governments across the EU redouble their efforts to ensure a fair and equitable recovery from the ongoing pandemic,” it added.
The survey singled out Hungary and Poland as countries using the pandemic as “an excuse to undermine democracy” by imposing measures that weaken democratic institutions. – DW
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