- Europe
Corruption in the EU: A Threat to Democracy
Photo by Grant Faint/Getty Images
Tiago Moreira de Sá, MEP (Chega/Patriots for Europe) analyses how corruption is eating away at Europe’s institutions, threatening not just development but democracy itself. Inspired by Cicero’s reflections on virtue and duty, he calls for the creation of a new global objective — SDG 18 — to fight corruption and restore public trust. Only by reuniting ethics and governance can we rebuild a future worth believing in
Europe, whose moral authority has long been weakened, awakens once more under the weight of new ethical stains. The recent corruption scandal involving the European Parliament and tech giant Huawei has again exposed the vulnerability of institutions to moral deviations. The Belgian police, who conducted searches in Brussels and Portugal and made arrests in France, revealed the complexity and extent of illicit schemes within the political power of the European Parliament. This unfortunate episode is just another symptom of a systemic problem that transcends borders and eras: corruption as a silent and insidious erosion of the pact between rulers and the ruled.
Reviving Ancient Wisdom: Cicero’s Call for Public Virtue
Cicero would certainly have let out a bitter smile. In his On Duties (De Officiis), an epistle written under the sign of urgency, between the assassination of Julius Caesar – stabbed in the middle of a Senate session – and his own imminent execution, Cicero, already geographically and symbolically exiled in the solitude of his villa in Puteoli and in the twilight of a crumbling Republic, draws a map of honor that remains surprisingly relevant. Framed as a letter to his son Marcus, the text offers a meditation on the responsibility of the citizen and, above all, of the public man before justice, honesty and the common good. The politician, for Cicero, is less a master of persuasion than a priest of the common good – someone who serves, not someone who is served by, the res publica. It is within this ethical horizon that corruption must be understood: more than a failure, it is a heresy, the desecration of a civic temple and a sacred pact.
In De Officiis, Cicero proposes a deep reflection on what it means to live in accordance with officium – a Latin term often translated as “duty”, but which carries a richer and more concrete resonance. Officium is more than an abstract obligation: it is “duty in action”, the bond between the individual and the moral order that structures both public and private life. Etymologically, the term suggests “that which is done for another” (ob + facere), that is, an act directed toward the other, toward the common good. When translated simply as “duties”, this embodied, active and relational dimension is often lost. For Cicero, officium is both an ethical demand and a civic exercise: it is in fulfilling our offices – as parents, magistrates, citizens – that we reveal our character.
Duty, thus understood, is not a burden imposed from outside, but an inner fidelity to justice, which gives shape and dignity to human life. Etymologically compatible, semantically related and, above all, ethically inseparable, “duty” and “office” point, through the convergence of their semantic fields, to the idea that to serve (whether in the political, professional or personal sphere) is not merely a list of tasks to fulfill, but a commitment to a moral order that transcends self-interest. Where office is divorced from duty, corruption is born, which, in its essence, is nothing other than an ontological betrayal of the ethical contract that underpins communal life. By replacing public interest with personal interest, the corrupt individual tears the moral fabric of the community, violating the sacred pact that binds rulers and the ruled – thus calling Democracy itself into question.
From Cicero to the SDGs: Rebuilding Public Trust
It was this letter, over two thousand years old – from a father to his son and from a humanist to Humanity – that inspired my proposal to revise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which I presented in Brussels a few days ago and will take to the High-Level Meeting in New York in July this year. This proposal, which arises as a political response to a moral crisis, foresees the creation of a new goal, “SDG 18”, under the slogan “Fight Corruption and Promote Transparent Governance”, which adds to and directly impacts several of the other 17 goals and provides them with new tools for concrete implementation. By recognizing corruption as a systemic obstacle to progress, the proposal takes on a civilizational character: it seeks to free up resources captured by vice, in order to reinvest them in the common good of developing countries.
According to data from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), billions of euros are diverted annually in developing countries; funds that could – and should – be invested in health, education, infrastructure and justice. The creation of independent anti-corruption agencies, protection for whistleblowers and journalists, and the promotion of transparency in the budgets of recipient countries are not merely technical measures, but existential ones. Fighting corruption is about restoring lost trust. “SDG 18”, as I have called it, intersects across all other fundamental goals, such as the eradication of poverty or universal access to health and education. Institutional integrity thus becomes a prerequisite for sustainable development. Without trust in institutions, the social contract is not possible. Without ethics, institutions are administrative machines devoid of meaning, operating in a void.
“SDG 18” thus proposes an articulated and pragmatic response to a structural challenge – in truth, a vice – that transcends borders and sectors: the normalization of corruption as part of institutional functioning. By setting concrete targets (from the creation of independent agencies to the recovery of misappropriated assets) and linking itself to the fundamental pillars of sustainable development, this proposal takes on a catalytic and organizing role. It is not merely about adding a new goal to the well-known 2030 Agenda, but about reinforcing the ethical backbone of all the others. Do we truly believe in development? Then let us address one of the main causes of the systemic failure of most SDGs, the great elephant in the room that no one wants to see or talk about: corruption in the use of public funds, including in development and cooperation. Public funds, whether from donor states, multilaterals, or – what motivated my proposal – the European Union, must reach their real recipients and not end up in the pockets of a few.
From Cicero to the SDGs: Rebuilding Public Trust
It was this letter, over two thousand years old – from a father to his son and from a humanist to Humanity – that inspired my proposal to revise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which I presented in Brussels a few days ago and will take to the High-Level Meeting in New York in July this year. This proposal, which arises as a political response to a moral crisis, foresees the creation of a new goal, “SDG 18”, under the slogan “Fight Corruption and Promote Transparent Governance”, which adds to and directly impacts several of the other 17 goals and provides them with new tools for concrete implementation. By recognizing corruption as a systemic obstacle to progress, the proposal takes on a civilizational character: it seeks to free up resources captured by vice, in order to reinvest them in the common good of developing countries.
According to data from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), billions of euros are diverted annually in developing countries; funds that could – and should – be invested in health, education, infrastructure and justice. The creation of independent anti-corruption agencies, protection for whistleblowers and journalists, and the promotion of transparency in the budgets of recipient countries are not merely technical measures, but existential ones. Fighting corruption is about restoring lost trust. “SDG 18”, as I have called it, intersects across all other fundamental goals, such as the eradication of poverty or universal access to health and education. Institutional integrity thus becomes a prerequisite for sustainable development. Without trust in institutions, the social contract is not possible. Without ethics, institutions are administrative machines devoid of meaning, operating in a void.
“SDG 18” thus proposes an articulated and pragmatic response to a structural challenge – in truth, a vice – that transcends borders and sectors: the normalization of corruption as part of institutional functioning. By setting concrete targets (from the creation of independent agencies to the recovery of misappropriated assets) and linking itself to the fundamental pillars of sustainable development, this proposal takes on a catalytic and organizing role. It is not merely about adding a new goal to the well-known 2030 Agenda, but about reinforcing the ethical backbone of all the others. Do we truly believe in development? Then let us address one of the main causes of the systemic failure of most SDGs, the great elephant in the room that no one wants to see or talk about: corruption in the use of public funds, including in development and cooperation. Public funds, whether from donor states, multilaterals, or – what motivated my proposal – the European Union, must reach their real recipients and not end up in the pockets of a few.
Fighting Corruption Is Fighting for Our Children
As Cicero taught his son – and all of us –, the fight against corruption is, in truth, a moral reconstruction of the public sphere. Democracy survives not only through well-crafted laws but through citizens committed to virtue, justice and truth. At the end of the day, the rule of law rests on the state of conscience.
Corruption is not, therefore, just a political blight, but a first-order philosophical problem. It demands from us not only momentary indignation or ad hoc improvisation, but a continuous effort of ethical regeneration. For where opacity sets in, truth withers. And the withering of truth is a powerful force that drags everything else down with it.
When people no longer believe in the integrity of their rulers, they become cynical or submissive, hostages of disbelief or servility. Fighting corruption is a necessary condition for the very freedom of peoples. That is why, as Cicero so clearly understood, fighting corruption is, in an essential sense, addressing our children.
