Bulgaria has fallen sharply in the corruption perception index published by Transparency International on Tuesday, while Romania comes second as the most corrupt countries in the EU, followed by Poland, Lithuania, Greece and Italy.

A regional analysis of how corruption is perceived says that EU accession is not an automatic remedy for corruption, as shown by the sharp fall of Bulgaria from a 4.1 index in 2007 to 3.6 in 2008.

Romania's index is 3.8. From 2004 to 2007, Romania was named most corrupted EU candidate/member country.

The world index covers 180 countries and puts Romania 70th, with Bulgaria on 72nd place.