France, which has historically pioneered a merit-based civil service and has some of the finest public accountability laws in the European Union, has been constantly shaken by political corruption scandals over the past thirty years. Its judiciary is not sufficiently autonomous from the government, resulting in weak prosecution of corruption, particularly at top levels, although this has improved somewhat in the last few years. Restrictive laws and conservative-minded magistrates restrict the media’s capacity to disclose corruption and result in reports that appear only after official investigations have begun. Better oversight is needed to monitor compliance with international legislation by companies seeking local government approvals when operating abroad. France is a champion of e-transparency in the European Union, but has declined significantly on online services in the past decade.

Germany is a country with practically no administrative corruption, but recent scandals have shown that the connection between business and politics is highly problematic and that accountability measures are lacking for politicians. Much more should be done to enforce international sanctions against business fraud and corruption and to improve the separation between domestic business and politics. Digitalization remains underwhelming. Finally, Germany still does not publish final justifications for judicial decisions in many of its courts, and prosecutors depend too much on the government, according to a 2019 decision of the European Court of Justice. A significant improvement on press freedom has occurred over the past decade.