Analytics, Corruption, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation, Lithuania

"The general impression is that the situation is improving," Sergejus Muravjovas, head of the Lithuanian office of Transparency International, told BNS.

According to the Eurobarometer survey, 24% of those polled in Lithuania specified that corruption had an impact on their daily life, however, merely 8% said they had seen or faced any cases of corruption over the past year, which is a decline by 17%age points from 2013 – this is the sharpest change in the European Union (EU).

Asked about their opinion about corruption changes in their country over the past three years, the biggest number (42%) said it was unchanged, 32% said the corruption level increased and 20% said it had declined.

Merely 19% of Lithuanians said financing of political parties was transparent, which is the 6th lowest figure across the EU.

Some 80% of Lithuanians said that high-level corruption was not getting enough attention, which puts the country in the 5th place in the 28-member organization. Merely 8% of Lithuanians described the state's anti-corruption efforts as efficient, which is the 3rd lowest figure in the EU.

At 34%, Lithuanians were also the top EU nation to say they knew someone who had accepted a bribe.

Asked to specify the areas that they thought featured corruption, many Lithuanians mentioned the health care sector (79%), political parties (64%) and officials issuing construction permits (61%).

The survey interviewed 508 respondents in Lithuania in October.