Malta in lower half of EU index

Malta is perceived as the 39th least corrupt country in the world and the 17th within the EU.

The island scored 5.6 out of 10 in this year’s Corruption Perception Index released yesterday by the international think-tank Transparency International, an identical score to last year.

It slipped two places in the world index although this was a statistical effect stemming from the fact that the list has been expanded to 183 countries from last year’s 178. The CPI has been measuring corruption since 1995. Its index is based on analyses and surveys carried out by independent global institutions such as the Economist Intelligence Unit, the World Economic Forum and others.

The index ranks countries on a scale of zero to 10, with zero indicating high levels of corruption.

Two thirds of the 183 countries surveyed scored less than five points, meaning their corruption levels are significantly high. The least corrupt country in the world is New Zealand, taking over from Denmark, which topped the ranking in the past few years. Afghanistan and Myanmar share second to last place with a score of 1.5, with Somalia and North Korea – included for the first time – coming in last with one.

In the EU, the “cleanest” countries are Denmark, Finland and Sweden and the most corrupt are perceived to be Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Italy. Almost all the “old” member states, with the exception of Greece and Italy, are perceived as less corrupt than Malta, as are Cyprus, Estonia and Slovenia, which joined the EU together with Malta in 2004.