Transparency and accountability of public administrations in Europe (EuroPAM)

A project published by the European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building (ERCAS) at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, the European Public Accountabilty Mechanisms (EuroPAM) database assesses the transparency of public administration and the accountability of public officials in the countries of the EU as well as in a few other countries. The database is part of the DIGIWHIST project, which is funded by the European Union.

The database includes the relevant European and national legislation (which can be downloaded in .pdf) and datasets (in .xls format) covering the years 2012 and 2015-17. EuroPAM uses 5 categories to classify the information: political financing; financial disclosure; conflict of interest; freedom of information; public procurement.

While some charts and infographics provide an overall picture, EuroPAM comes with clear and comprehensive factsheets on each individual country, combining texts with qualitative and quantitative data, and links. Some simple visualization and comparison tools make it easier to appreciate the state of the transparency and accountability mechanisms in the different European states.