Corruption in Belgium describes the prevention and occurrence of

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. In general, Belgium has a well-developed legal and institutional framework for fighting against

Extent

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil s ...

's 2024

Corruption Perceptions Index The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index that scores and ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as assessed by experts and business executives. The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entr ...

, Belgium scored 69 on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"). When ranked by score, Belgium ranked 22nd among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. For comparison with regional scores, the best score among Western European and

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

countries was 90, the average score was 64 and the worst score was 41. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the average score was 43, and the worst score was 8 (ranked 180). Despite Belgium's respectable performance on the Corruption Perceptions Index, public trust in the

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

and

judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

is low, and the perception of corruption is extremely high in Belgium. Over 65% of people in Belgium think corruption is a problem. Over 70% think the government is at least to a large extent, or even entirely, run by a few big entities acting in their own best interests. There are areas that could be improved. For instance,

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

protection needs further improvement. It has been recommended that the process of anti-corruption policy implementation should also actively engage private sectors.

Dictator sanctuary accusations

Belgium offered a post-presidency retirement sanctuary for

Rafael Correa Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (; born 6 April 1963) is an Ecuadorian politician and economist who served as the 45th president of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017. The leader of the PAIS Alliance political movement from its foundation until 2017, Corr ...

, former president of

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, who was investigated for massive corruption as soon as he left office. In January 2019, Ecuadorean president

Lenin Moreno Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until his death in 1924, and of ...

said that nearly half of $4.9 billion in oil infrastructure investment made during the administration of previous president Correa was stolen via corruption. Over 317 officials who served in Correa's administration were suspected of corruption. Correa was president of Ecuador between 2007 and 2017. He immediately moved to Belgium when his term was over.

Notes

References

External links

Belgium Corruption Profile
from the Business Anti-Corruption Portal {{Europe topic , Corruption in

Politics of Belgium

Crime in Belgium Law of Belgium Economy of Belgium Government of Belgium Society of Belgium

Extent

Dictator sanctuary accusations

See also

Notes

References

External links