The worst in the Western Balkans, and in Europe better only than Belarus, Turkey and Russia - this is the position of Serbia according to the Corruption Perceptions Index in 2025, prepared by the non-governmental organization "Transparency International", the Serbian TV "Insider" reported late last night, BTA reported.
Out of a possible hundred points, Serbia has 33, which places it in 116th place out of 182 countries and territories in the world. The result is nine points below the world average and 29 points lower than the average for the European Union.
This is the worst result for Serbia in the last twenty years, notes En 1 television.
According to the data, Serbia's position is 45 places worse than its best ranking ten years ago, and for the first time this year it was also rated the worst among the Western Balkan countries.
The corruption data for 2025 put Serbia for the first time in a less favorable position than Bosnia and Herzegovina (34 points), and in the whole of Europe only Belarus (31 points), Turkey (31 points) and Russia (22 points) have weaker indicators than it, writes the newspaper "Danas".
According to the assessment of „Transparency International“ “in several countries in the Western Balkans, insufficient judicial action is one of the main obstacles to the successful fight against corruption, while judges and prosecutors nevertheless become targets of attacks by government representatives“, "Insider" reports.
In this regard, Nemanja Nenadić from "Transparency Serbia" commented to "Insider" developments in relation to the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime following an investigation into alleged abuses by members of the Serbian government, and specifically against Culture Minister Nikola Selaković, who is accused of falsifying documents in the case of the General Staff of the former Yugoslav Army.
The global Corruption Perceptions Index 2025 is topped by Denmark (89) and Finland (88), while Somalia (9) and South Sudan (9) are at the bottom of the ranking.
The Transparency International ranking measures the perception of existing corruption in the public sector in 182 countries and territories by combining data from 13 independent sources. The ranking is prepared by awarding points from 0 to 100, where 100 is “no corruption“.