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Corruption in the European Union
EU corruption has historically taken a wide range of forms demonstrated so vividly with successive scandals in banking, tax avoidance, a host of malpractice and fraud cases to secretive TTIP negotiations that circumvents public interest needs. The result is that public support for the EU has been seriously undermined with 70 percent of Europe’s population believing corruption is now centred on politics and corporations.
The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market, enact legislation in justice and home affairs, and maintain common policies on trade and regional development.
For the corrupt – this type of geopolitcal arrangement, still in its infancy, operating across the borders of so many nation states on a single continent is a godsend. It provides an opportunity to harmonise and standardise practices in order to reduce risk and ensure even greater success of criminality paying off.
It wasn’t until February 2014 that the EU published its very first report on corruption and calculated that corruption was affecting all 28 nations within the bloc amounting to €120bn.(1)
Philosophers stone – selected views from the boat http://philosophers-stone.co.uk
Source: http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=14049
