背景介绍：
立陶宛在打击腐败方面取得了显著成效，成为欧盟中的佼佼者。然而，并非所有欧盟成员国都能取得类似的进步，尤其是在21世纪初加入的前共产主义国家中。此外，欧盟机构内部也爆发了重大腐败丑闻。许多希望加入欧盟的国家将反腐视为整顿政府的契机，但如果欧盟自身在反腐方面表现不佳，这些希望或将落空。其中一个关键问题在于欧盟援助资金可能在一定程度上助长了腐败。
Dirty sponges
肮脏的海绵
Squeaky-clean Europe is more corrupt than you think
以清廉著称的欧洲比你想象的更腐败
“It was retro style,” laughs Ruta Kaziliunaite, the co-ordinator of Lithuania’s Special Investigation Service (STT), the country’s anti-corruption police. Last November the former leader of the Liberal Movement party was convicted of taking bribes from an executive at MG Baltic, a trading and real-estate conglomerate.
“这是一种复古风格的做法，”立陶宛特别调查局（STT）协调员 Ruta Kaziliunaite 笑着说道，该机构专门负责该国的反腐败工作。去年11月，自由运动党的前领导人因收受来自贸易和房地产集团 MG 波罗的海的一名高管的贿赂而被判有罪。
It was not a matter of hidden transfers to shell companies, but of old-fashioned wads of cash: the STT found €242,000 ($269,000) stashed in the MP’s house and car. (Both men are appealing.)
这并非是通过空壳公司进行的秘密资金转移，而是采用了老式的现金交易方式：STT 在涉事议员的住所与车辆中搜出了共计24.2万欧元（折合26.9万美元）的现金。（目前，两人均处于上诉阶段。）
In fighting corruption, Lithuania is one of the European Union’s star pupils. Corruption is hard to measure; it is by nature secret. But Transparency International, a Berlin-based watchdog, gauges how clean countries are perceived to be, and Lithuania went from 48th in the world in 2012 to 34th in 2023.
在打击腐败的战场上，立陶宛堪称欧盟中的佼佼者。腐败行为因其固有的隐秘性而难以精确衡量。然而，总部位于柏林的监督机构透明国际通过衡量民众对国家清廉程度的看法，为各国进行了排名。立陶宛的排名从2012年的第48位跃升至2023年的第34位。
The European Research Centre for Anti-corruption and State-building (ERCAS), an academic outfit that measures public integrity and transparency, rates Lithuania among the top 20 for both.
欧洲反腐败和国家建设研究中心（ERCAS），一个专注于评估公共诚信与透明度的学术机构，也将立陶宛列入了这两个维度的前20名榜单。
This is the sort of success story the EU likes to tell about itself. Europe is home to the world’s least corrupt countries, and Eurocrats see their union as a force for reform. The EU generally requires countries to improve their governance before they can join; its regulations are meant to keep them honest once they are in.
这正是欧盟乐于传颂的成功案例。欧洲拥有世界上最廉洁的国家，欧盟官员常将联盟视为推动改革的强大力量。欧盟通常要求申请加入的国家在正式加入前改善治理状况；其各项规定旨在确保成员国在加入后保持诚信。
Unfortunately, the data over the past decade tell a different story. Lithuania and its Baltic neighbours, Estonia and Latvia, have improved dramatically. But other formerly communist countries that joined the EU in the 2000s have not.
遗憾的是，过去十年的数据却揭示了另一番景象。立陶宛及其波罗的海邻国爱沙尼亚、拉脱维亚的清廉状况均有了显著提升。然而，其他在21世纪初加入欧盟的前共产主义国家却未能实现同样的进步。
Poland, a relatively clean country, got dirtier from 2015 to 2023 under a populist government. Romania jailed thousands of crooked officials, but others often took their places. In Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia oligarchs have outlasted prosecutors. Under Viktor Orban’s illiberal rule, Hungary has become as corrupt as some countries in Africa and the Middle East.
波兰，一个相对清廉的国家，在民粹主义政府的领导下，自2015年至2023年间清廉度有所下降。罗马尼亚虽已关押了数千名腐败官员，但他们的位置往往很快就被其他人接替。在保加利亚、捷克共和国和斯洛伐克，寡头们的任期甚至超过了检察官。而在欧尔班·维克托的狭隘统治下，匈牙利的腐败程度已堪比非洲和中东的一些国家。
The ex-Soviet bloc is not the only region to worry about. Hopes that southern Europe would turn more Scandinavian have not been borne out. The graft that surfaced in Spain during the global financial crisis has led to little reform.
前苏联集团并非唯一令人担忧的地区。南欧国家向斯堪的纳维亚模式靠拢的希望并未成真。在全球金融危机期间，西班牙曝出的贪污案件几乎没有引发任何实质性的改革。
Italy has improved, but only from the low bar of Silvio Berlusconi’s scandal-plagued administrations. Greece’s corruption is infamous, and the reforms which the EU and IMF imposed after the euro crisis did little to fix it.
意大利虽已有所改善，但仅是从西尔维奥·贝卢斯科尼丑闻缠身的低标准政府起步。希腊的腐败问题臭名昭著，欧盟和国际货币基金组织在欧元危机后实施的改革对于解决这一问题效果甚微。
In 2019 a Greek prosecutor who went after Novartis, a drug firm, for bribing doctors was fired—and was then prosecuted herself, even though in America the company admitted guilt and paid $347m in fines. (She was acquitted last year.)
2019年，一名追踪诺华制药公司贿赂医生行为的希腊检察官被解雇，随后她自己也遭到了起诉，尽管该公司在美国已承认有罪并支付了3.47亿美元的罚款。（值得庆幸的是，她于去年被宣判无罪。）
Worse, EU institutions have had big scandals of their own. In late 2022 Belgian police arrested several members of the European Parliament and their aides for accepting bribes from Qatar (and seized nearly €1m in retro-style cash). A quarter of MEPs have been entangled in ethical trouble, according to Follow The Money, a Dutch investigative website.
更为严重的是，欧盟机构内部也爆发了重大丑闻。2022年底，比利时警方逮捕了几名欧洲议会议员及其助手，指控他们接受了卡塔尔的贿赂（并缴获了近100万欧元的旧版现金）。荷兰调查网站 Follow The Money 指出，四分之一的欧洲议会议员陷入了道德争议。
In many countries—such as Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine—anti-corruption advocates want to join the EU precisely in order to clean up government. If the EU is not doing well at fighting corruption, it suggests these hopes may be misplaced. What is going wrong?
在亚美尼亚、格鲁吉亚、摩尔多瓦和乌克兰等许多国家，反腐倡议者将加入欧盟视为整顿政府的契机。如果欧盟在打击腐败方面表现不佳，那么这些希望或将化为泡影。问题究竟出在哪里？
One issue is that although the EU’s reforms reduce corruption, the billions of euros it distributes can encourage it. Corruption tends to be high in countries rich in natural resources—the so-called resource curse. When EU aid goes to countries with weak institutions, “it functions like a resource curse”, says Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, a corruption scholar who heads ERCAS.
一个关键问题在于，尽管欧盟的改革措施确实减少了腐败，但其分配的数十亿欧元援助资金却可能在一定程度上助长了腐败。在自然资源丰富的国家，腐败现象往往尤为严重，即所谓的“资源诅咒”现象。当欧盟援助资金涌入那些制度不健全的国家时，“它就像是一个资源诅咒”，ERCAS 负责人、腐败问题学者阿林娜·蒙久·皮皮迪如此说道。
苏格拉底有一句名言：我知我无知。说的是，当你认识到的东西越多就越发现自己无知。苏格拉底认为，人对于客观世界的认识是有限的，且不可能完全认识客观世界，并且不应对客观世界刨根究底。神对于世界的规划自有安排，若人一意孤行地探索世界和自然的奥秘，则最终将亵渎甚至触怒神明。正因为人对神所构建的世界不可能实现完全认知，因此那些宣称自己能够认识和改造世界的人，本身便是无知的代言。尽管苏格拉底的关于“ 我知我无知”的观念的解读，在现在看来有失客观科学。但至少苏格拉底告诫人们，人的认知是有限的，现有的知识甚至可能存在错误和疏漏。同样地，我们在求学之路上也要报以我知我不知的心态，才能走得更远。最后，祝愿莘莘学子都能终有所成！
