The newly published Corruption Assessment Report (CAR) 2025 by the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC) reveals that corruption remains a persistent and multifaceted challenge in North Macedonia, marked by institutional weaknesses and sustained public concern, even as economic pressures such as rising prices signal the greatest concern for citizens over the last year.
The findings come as Skopje’s EU accession process remains closely tied to its ability to strengthen the rule of law and demonstrate credible, measurable progress in tackling corruption, priorities the European Commission has consistently placed at the core of the enlargement framework for the Western Balkans.
While the government has committed to aligning its legal and institutional framework with EU standards, recent Commission assessments have pointed to only “limited progress” in translating formal reforms into consistent enforcement and accountability, particularly in cases involving senior officials.
Public perceptions captured in the CAR report reflect a deep-rooted skepticism toward those in power.
More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents identify the pursuit of rapid personal enrichment by political and institutional elites as the primary driver of corruption, followed by concerns over judicial inefficiency (75%), and unresolved structural legacies and weak administrative oversight (74%), reinforcing a broader narrative of systemic fragility.
The report also points to a sharp increase, compared to 2023, in both pressure and involvement in corrupt practices. More than a third of respondents (36.7%) say they have faced pressure to engage in corruption, while nearly one in three report direct involvement.
Based on population-level projections, this equates to hundreds of thousands of adult citizens in North Macedonia being confronted with bribe requests or giving a bribe at least once over the past year, highlighting the enormous scale of administrative corruption in everyday interactions with the state institutions.
“These findings show that corruption is no longer seen as an isolated problem, but as something many citizens encounter in their everyday lives. When more than a third of people say they are under pressure to engage in corruption, it means the system itself is failing”, explains Snezana Kamilovska from the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation.
In this context, she adds, citizens see that those involved in corruption are rarely held accountable, and over time they stop believing that reporting or resisting makes a difference.
Daily media reports about new corruption cases, without clear outcomes, only deepen the feeling that corruption is widespread and untouchable, which fuels frustration and public apathy.
At the same time, public resistance to corruption appears to be diminishing. Just over half of the respondents (53,7%) now say they reject corrupt practices, significantly decreased from two years ago (62,9%), suggesting a growing tolerance and acceptance of corruption, which poses additional challenges for policy-driven anti-corruption efforts.
Namely, nearly half of respondents (45%) indicate they would be willing to give or accept a bribe under certain circumstances, and this is the highest level recorded since 2014, while the share of those who say they would refuse under any conditions has fallen from (39,9%) in 2023 to just (26%) in 2025.
Commenting this negative trend, Kamilovska says that one of the most worrying trends is the growing number of citizens who no longer fully reject corruption. According to her, this is not because people suddenly accept corruption, but because many feel they have no other choice.
“When basic services, documents, or legal protection cannot be obtained through regular procedures, people turn to informal solutions just to move things forward. In this environment, corruption starts to feel like a way to cope with a broken system. That is why fighting corruption requires more than statements and strategies – it requires functioning institutions, real consequences, and equal rules for everyone”, Kamilovska adds.
Public concern about corruption within the civil service remains high, with (69%) of respondents stating that they believe corruption is widespread across all public institutions in the country. Judges and public prosecutors are perceived as the most corrupt professions, followed by police officers and leaders of political parties or coalitions, highlighting deep public distrust in the very institutions responsible for upholding the rule of law and democratic accountability.
Confidence in the prospects for meaningful change remains fragile. Only around a third of respondents believe corruption can be reduced or eliminated, and close to eight in ten expect corrupt pressure to persist in the future, a level of pessimism that, despite marginal improvement, continues to cast a shadow over both domestic reform efforts and North Macedonia’s broader European integration trajectory.
The authors of the report frame their conclusions as a call for action rather than a closing assessment, pointing to what they describe as a growing gap between formal anti-corruption commitments and citizens’ everyday experiences with public institutions.
They argue that without consistent enforcement, visible accountability, and sustained political will, the risk is not only that corruption remains entrenched, but that public tolerance continues to rise even further, a dynamic that could ultimately weigh on both domestic reform efforts and the credibility of North Macedonia’s European path.
“What the findings clearly show is that the fight against corruption cannot remain at the level of declarations and strategies,” Kamilovska emphasized.
She argued that citizens need to see concrete results, this means a functional system in which oversight and enforcement mechanisms actually work and violations are followed by real consequences.
“Without visible outcomes and equal application of the rules for everyone, public trust will continue to erode. Restoring that trust requires consistent accountability and institutions that citizens can rely on in practice, not only on paper,” she concluded.
This article was published as part of the project “Civil society for good governance and anti-corruption in southeast Europe: Capacity building for monitoring, advocacy and awareness-raising (SELDI)” funded by the European Union.
