The European Anti-Corruption and State-Building Research Centre has released report analysing the causes and trends of corruption across Europe.

Covering all 41 EU member and candidate countries, it was prepared on behalf of the European Commission under its Research and Innovation programme. Among other topics, the report examines administrative transparency in European countries. Georgia achieved a leading position in this ranking.

In the context of public governance integrity, Georgia received a perfect score of 10 on a 10-point administrative transparency scale, placing it 1st in Europe. In the ranking, Georgia is tied with 5 EU member states - France, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovenia - and surpasses all other EU countries. At the bottom of the scale, with the lowest administrative transparency scores, are Ukraine, Germany, Ireland.

The administrative transparency indicator primarily relates to public oversight, including the disclosure of organisational ownership data, public contracts, and associated audited reports.

According to the researchers, “the poor performance of some EU member states can be explained by a lack of investment in transparency. Oligarchs and money launderers from Russia and other countries have gained significant control over real estate and business sectors (as demonstrated by the Wirecard collapse in Germany, which revealed corruption among German regulators and links to Russian intelligence). According to experts, the public disclosure of ownership records should become a priority for these countries. Researchers are particularly concerned about the lack of transparency in bank ownership, which has already led to spectacular money-laundering operations in Moldova and the Baltic states, involving Western European banks as well”.