BRUSSELS — The European Union is handing out billions of euros to nongovernmental organizations annually with out correctly monitoring how the cash is spent — or whether or not it’s even going to real NGOs.
That’s the principle discovering in a damning report from the European Court docket of Auditors which is more likely to intensify a fierce political battle over how nonprofits use EU grant cash.
Utilizing phrases like “opaque” and “hazy,” the report finds the EU’s whole course of for funding NGOs lacks transparency and requires reform in the best way grants are offered, monitored and disclosed.
“The image of EU funding for NGOs stays hazy, as data on EU funding — together with lobbying — is neither dependable nor clear,” mentioned Laima Andrikienė, the ECA member in command of the report, who can also be a former lawmaker with the center-right European Folks’s Get together (EPP).
The criticism will give ammunition to conservative lawmakers within the European Parliament who need to overhaul the best way EU cash is doled out to NGOs, claiming it lacks transparency and is commonly used to foyer EU establishments — criticisms echoed within the report.
Hanging over the report is the query of lobbying. Are NGOs utilizing public cash to affect EU policymaking?And if they’re, is it being achieved in keeping with EU values? On these questions, the ECA discovered the European Fee lacked curiosity and transparency.
The Fee “didn’t clearly disclose the data it held on NGO advocacy actions that had been financed by EU grants,” the ECA mentioned.
Regardless of the general important tone, the report did discover some enhancements because the ECA’s final evaluation in 2018. It additionally famous that because the interval audited within the report, the Fee had issued steering to NGOs that EU funding shouldn’t be used for lobbying. However general the system was “too opaque,” the ECA’s Andrikienė mentioned. “Enhancements are completely crucial. We can’t proceed this enterprise as regular.”
Importantly, the ECA discovered no proof of NGOs utilizing EU funds in a method that breached EU legislation or EU values — together with through advocacy or lobbying work paid for with EU cash — however warned the chance of this taking place was greater due to the shortage of transparency, the company mentioned throughout a press briefing on Monday.
Final week the Fee admitted in an announcement that in “some circumstances” work packages submitted by the NGOs “contained particular advocacy actions and undue lobbying actions.”
Unhealthy time to be an NGO
The report might hardly come at a worse time for the nonprofit sector. In Europe, assaults on NGOs from MEPs are multiplying, notably over their use of EU funds to pay for lobbying actions.
MEPs from the EPP allege the European Fee paid NGOs explicitly to foyer on its behalf to advertise the European Inexperienced Deal in EU establishments, together with different Fee departments — one thing the Fee appeared to confess final week.
Early negotiations over the EU’s subsequent long-term funds, in the meantime,recommend devoted packages for environmental and local weather motion might be lowered if not lower altogether, because the EU’s priorities swap from inexperienced points to protection, commerce and competitiveness.
And on the worldwide degree, funding sources are drying up after United States President Donald Trump determined to freeze the $27 billion-a-year USAID international improvement program.
Inexperienced MEP Daniel Freund instructed POLITICO that he feared ECA’s report might be “misused by some political forces” and gas additional assaults on NGOs.
“Whenever you learn the headline … it would create the impression that it’s the fault of the NGOs … when it is a common drawback of the beneficiaries of EU funding,” Freund mentioned.
NGOs in the meantime welcomed the report.
“The underside line is that there is no such thing as a scandal. Solely a transparent have to strengthen transparency,” mentioned Patrizia Heidegger, coverage director on the European Environmental Bureau, one in all Brussels’ largest environmental NGOs.
What the report mentioned
The ECA checked out EU funding awarded to 90 NGOs over 2021-2023 and price €7.4 billion in whole.
It included funds obtained by the EU’s Horizon Europe analysis program, the European Social Fund Plus, the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, youth program Erasmus+, in addition to the LIFE program that funds inexperienced tasks.
It discovered the Fee does confirm that NGOs fulfill fundamental transparency necessities, however fails to “proactively examine compliance with EU values.” This exposes the EU to reputational threat, Andrikienė mentioned.
The European auditors discovered “no dependable overview of EU funding granted to NGOs” and pointed to situations the place organizations self-declared themselves to be NGOs after they weren’t.
“We had been fairly shocked to seek out that one giant analysis institute was categorized as an NGO whereas its governing physique was composed solely of presidency representatives,” Andrikienė instructed reporters.
The report discovered vital points of an NGO’s standing weren’t checked, comparable to authorities hyperlinks and whether or not it was pursuing its members’ business pursuits.
The Fee additionally did not “clearly disclose” to the general public data it had about NGOs’ “advocacy actions” that had been funded by EU grants, the auditors mentioned, calling for added transparency on this due to the “delicate nature” of this data.
The ECA advisable the Fee present clearer definitions of what counts as an NGO, demand extra common updates on how grant cash is being spent, and strengthen checks that NGOs are performing in keeping with EU values.
The Fee replied that it’s going to tackle the auditors’ recommendation and undertake measures “which reduce administrative burden and are proportionate.”
Marianne Gros contributed to reporting.