Corruption in the European Union. Four valuable lessons for Ukraine

No one disputes that there is corruption in Ukraine. It is a direct consequence of the size, functionality, and place of the State (managers of others) in the economy. When more than half of the country’s resources and assets are in the hands of officials, when ~45% of GDP passes through their hands every year, when economic freedom is in the grip of licenses, permits, certificates, quotas, regulations, prohibitions and other whims of someone else’s managers, corruption is inevitable.

There is a lot of corruption in EU countries. There may be even more corruption in some European Union and NATO countries than in Ukraine. In March-April 2022, Eurobarometer conducted the “Special Eurobarometer 523” survey on corruption. With such results, most EU countries could not be admitted to either NATO or the European Union. There is no doubt that the European state of general interventionism in the EU is entangled with corruption. The European Union itself cannot cope with this phenomenon. The European Leviathan, through state spending, state ownership, hundreds of regulatory instruments, prohibitions, and restrictions, gave birth to the monster of corruption. The constitutional majority of EU citizens support this opinion.

• 68% of residents of EU countries believe that corruption is widespread in their countries. Results range from 98% in Greece, Cyprus, and Croatia to 16% in Denmark and 17% in Finland
• Corruption is widespread in political parties – 58%, among politicians – 55%, officials who conduct public tenders – 45%, who issue building permits – 45%
• 74% of EU residents believe that there is corruption in their countries’ national and state bodies, and 72% think there is corruption in regional and local bodies. 68% of residents believe that bribery and the use of connections is the easiest way to get services from the state
• 77% of EU residents believe that the ties between politics and business are too close and lead to corruption. 65% of EU residents agree that favoritism and corruption hinder the development of competition in the economy
• 61% of respondents said that corruption is part of the business culture in their country, and 53% said that the only way to succeed in business is to have political connections
• 24% of residents of EU countries believe that corruption interferes with them in everyday life. 60% of them are in Croatia and only 5% in Denmark
• 41% of respondents said that corruption in their country has increased, and 43% said it had remained the same. 69% believe that the authorities in their country do not fight corruption sufficiently.

UKRAINE CAN DRAW CONCLUSIONS FROM SUCH A SITUATION WITH CORRUPTION IN THE EU:

The first lesson:

Ukraine’s copying of standard tax and regulatory practices in the EU after the war is guaranteed to cement corruption, reboot the Ukrainian oligarchy, and block the return of 5-7 million Ukrainians to the country. They will not want to return to a corrupt government again. Ukraine, in such a regime, will never become Denmark or Sweden. We will be roughly like Croatia, Bulgaria, or Greece, but 5-7 times smaller in GDP per capita.

The second lesson:

The national and Brussels bureaucracy is interested in implementing Marshall’s conditional state plan for Ukraine because aid under the wing of the state guarantees European managers and consumers of foreign goods huge profits. Most of the money will be mastered by them in partnership with Ukrainian managers and consumers of foreign goods. This regime makes it impossible to transform Ukraine into a dynamic, competitive country.

The third lesson:

The European Union cannot teach Ukraine how to defeat corruption because it does not know how and does not want to do it. The reason for corruption is not in the vicious nature of entrepreneurship, not in immoral business habits, but in the regime of inequality, injustice, and pseudo-scientific interventionism, which managers of other people have created to enrich 3-5% of the population at the expense of the other 95-97%. Political elitism and business aristocracy directly consequence the practical implementation of the theory of general state interventionism.

The fourth lesson:

After the victory over Nazi Russia, Ukraine will have a unique short-term chance to create a tax, regulatory, and institutional environment that will easily attract trillions of dollars of private investment to the country. The foundation of Ukraine as a new West is trust. Trust between producers and consumers — without licenses, certificates, permits, prohibitions and other bureaucratic problems. Trust — taking into account private property. Trust is based on private courts and international arbitration. Trust is the basis of social defense capability and national competitiveness. Trust based on the beautiful historical traditions of the country — will and freedom. Laissez-faire Ukraine!