The latest Special Eurobarometer 470 shows that more than 60% of EU citizens think that corruption is present in their country; the corruption perception index shows a far bleaker picture for Western Balkan (WB) countries. Not only is corruption an impediment to joining the EU, it also has considerable impact on the economic sector, society and individuals. Thus the consortium designed “Fighting Corruption — Expanding the Union” — a project that uses a bottom-up approach to tackling corruption through educating youth workers (from the EU and WB), designing a toolkit and developing non-formal education methods, through which youth workers from partner countries will empower youth to address cases of corruption. The consortium includes 11 organisations from 10 countries (5 from the EU and 5 from WB)

Fighting corruption is a crucial priority both in EU28 and WB countries. The majority of initiatives targeting corruption are aimed at decision makers and are thus distinctly top-down in character. While these initiatives are crucial in establishing rule of law, they often overlook the fact that corruption is entrenched in culture and the most effective long-term strategy for fighting it is to make it culturally unacceptable. Therefore, young people are the key target group — they are the future leaders, entrepreneurs and civil society actors.