Despite high-profile corruption scandals like Qatargate, surprisingly little is known about how corruption is defined and understood within the EU. Corruption within EU institutions themselves—and the efforts to address it—have received limited academic attention. For instance, why are some actions deemed criminal while others are not? Similarly, the development of standards and norms of good governance in the EU remains largely unexplored.

This gap in academic research leaves many questions unanswered, highlighting the need for a deeper investigation into how corruption is constructed and addressed within the EU. This is particularly relevant at a time of multiple reforms, with the establishment of an independent EU Ethics Body and the new directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on combating corruption.

EU Covert key focus areas:

Insider Perceptions and Experience:

How do MEPs, European officials and their staff perceive, understand and feel about corruption and related areas such as undue influence? How are special interests and practices of grey corruption percieved? This can include for example corruption and lobbying, conflicts of interests and unspecified concepts such as undue influence.

Policy instruments, power dynamics and usages:

How have these perceptions and feelings influenced current policy instruments, such as codes of conduct, transparency measures, accountability and integrity mechanisms, and ethics bodies? More broadly, how do both “black” and “grey” corruption shape power dynamics within EU institutions, affecting governance, policy-making processes, and overall legitimacy? How are these policy instruments recieved and used by the target population (EU officials and MEPs).

Given the nature of these questions this project requires a qualitative type of research in which interviews with key players, observations and document analysis will be of great importance. The project is also interested in mix-methods approaches, including, for example, surveys or experiments.

This project is led by Sofia Wickberg (University of Amsterdam) and Rosa Sanchez Salgado (University of Amsterdam).

PhD Vacancy

There is currently a PhD vacancy on this project, click here for more information.