One Albanian in three bribed a government official last year

17 November 2008 Tirana — “At least 32% of Albanians said that they needed to bribe a government official in the last year”, a survey conducted by Gallup Inc found. The figure for the rest of the Balkans was less than 10%.
Albanians believed that their country would be welcomed by the EU as a new member state. The European Union, in fact, was seen to be having a strong impact: the majority of Albanians trusted the EU institutions and 83% believed that EU membership would be good for Albania. Bribery towards government officials and civil servants was reported as being by far the highest in the region with one-third of respondents having to pay a bribe in the year prior to the survey. Only 29% believed that the government was doing everything it could to fight organized crime. Albanians seemed to be the most mobile of the region’s people with over two-fifths of respondents stating that they had a family member working or studying abroad. Over one-third of Albanians said they wanted to move away from the country, according to the new Gallup Balkan Monitor report