중동부유럽

Romania has the second largest black economy in Europe and was ranked in 2015 as number 58 out of 168 countries in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Although in the last years Romania has deepened its anti-corruption activities and DNA (National Anticorruption Directorate) has arrested and convicted numerous high profile politicians and business figures (in a total of 1.138 people only in 2014), the country continues to be deeply controlled by corruption. The latest protests that forced the Prime Minister Victor Ponta and the government to resign indicate the population’s dissatisfaction with the current situation and wish for change. Last summer, Victor Ponta put forward the controversial approach of legalizing bribery in the health care system, where the informal payments seem to be rather widespread, as a way to get rid of it. The formalization of informal payments it is not a new idea, having been used successfully in Cambodia and Albania, but unsuccessfully in the African countries. However, the opinions on the topic in Romania have been divided, no decision has been taken yet and the question that remains is, can that really be an answer to the Romanian deeply corrupted health care system or not?