Ethics Between General Guidelines and National Values. A Comparative S tudy

It is a known fact that ethical conduct and ethical behavior of public servants at all hierarchical levels is a must for a modern and performance oriented public administration. It is also a known fact that ethical guidelines are the same all over the European Union. This guidelines are being set up to ensure the cohesion of the public administration in all EU member states. However the in-depth perception of the guidelines may vary from one EU member state to another and even within different regions of one and the same member state according to the historical background and national values of a nation. If ethics is to be regarded as one of the main pillars of the cooperation of the public administrations of the EU member states in order to form one European public administration this differences in perception and implementation of ethical guidelines must be understood and accepted. The European Union has understood that it is imperative to preserve the national characteristics of its member states and has let them find specific, regional solutions to communitarian issues. This paper tries to draws some interesting conclusions based on ethics and its perceptions in different EU member states by analyzing national values and opposing them to general ethical guidelines. This comparative study sets of from published sociological studies carried out in several European countries and aims to determine the coordinates a harmonic collaboration between public administrations.