Regional Activities Europe
Country Profile Germany

Country Profile Germany

Germany

Although Germany is generally not associated with high levels of corruption, there is no country in the world that is corruption free. Although it traditionally ranks highly on Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index (in 2018 it was ranked 11 out of 180), the country is also often mentioned in the media in relation to large-scale corruption scandals.

Germany is a wealthy country with comparatively good conditions to counteract corruption: the political system is stable, it has strong and efficient political institutions, civil rights are strongly protected and the welfare state provides a stable safety net for those in society needing assistance in either a financial, social or health-related sense. Germany has the fourth highest GDP after the USA, Japan and China and usually scores highly on the Human Development Index. Despite the fact that as an exporting nation, Germany faces particular corruption-related risks, global comparisons show it to have one of the highest prosecution rates in the world for transnational corruption. Besides these positive facts, awareness-raising remains an ongoing process.

For example, up until the 1990s, bribes paid to foreign officials by German companies were tax-deductible as ‘useful expenditure’. In fact, bribing the employees of foreign companies was not actually made illegal until 2002. The UN Convention Against Corruption was signed in 2003, but it took eleven years before it was ratified in 2014. With such late ratification, Germany became only the 173rd signatory and was the last EU-member state to join.

According to Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer, the areas in Germany that are perceived as most corrupt are the political parties and the private sector, shortly followed by the media, which for the first time scored better than the public sector. The least corrupt areas are the judiciary, the police and the education system. The Alliance for Integrity’s German office, which also acts as the initiative’s headquarters, are located in Berlin. From this base - and in close collaboration with all colleagues in the country offices - we are able to manage and enhance our network and organise activities both in Germany and abroad.

German companies are invited to become supporters and benefit from our multi-stakeholder network.

 

at a Glance

Population: 82,667 million inhabitants GDP per capita: 42,161.3 € (2016)
Form of government: Democratic-parliamentary federal state TI CPI rank: 11 out of 180 (2018)
GDP: 3,477,796.27 million € (2016) Score: 80/100 (2018)
 
 

COOPERATION IN GERMANY

 
 

In Germany the Alliance for Integrity has been active since 2014. The German Global Compact Network is one of our main partners in Germany and also a member of our Steering Committee

The Alliance for Integrity is closely cooperating with the German Global Compact Network towards principle 10 of the UN Global Compact: "Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery." We therefore work closely together to organise activities in furtherance of this goal, such as training activities, workshops and webinars. Our training programme is also based on a programme developed and implemented by the German Global Compact Network. Further information on the work regarding Principle 10 is available, in German, here.

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