A report commissioned by several European NGOs (Concord, European Women’s Lobby, Open Society Institute, Social Platform and Solidar) is critical of the EU rules and procedures for NGO funding.
The report, ’Striking a balance between efficiency, effectiveness and accountability: The impact of EU financial regulation on the relationship between the European Commission and NGOs’, has been issued at a critical point because the Commission is revising the Financial Regulation. This offers an opportunity for NGOs to attempt to improve the regulation.
The report found that the current financial regulation has several weaknesses and that ’the creative partnership between NGOs and the European Commission is being jeopardised by the too rigid application of the regulations which govern the financing of NGO activities’. This damages effectiveness of programmes and a lot of money is spent on an ineffective bureaucracy inside the EU institutions and the NGOs that receive funds.
The report’s main point is that many of the problems that NGOs experience in relation to EU funding could have been avoided, had NGOs been consulted when the financial regulations were drawn up. A central recommendation therefore is that the Commission should avoid this mistake this time around and consult NGOs when revising the financial regulation.
The other recommendations made concentrate on sound financial management, regulation that focuses on the end-user, tackling the problem of late payments and the creation of a central department for reference and benchmarking.
Other activities related to NGOs and funding
The political group of the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament is working on the project ’the Commission could to better...’, which looks at ways to improve how the Commission funds civil society organisations.
A public hearing on this theme will be held in the European Parliament on Wednesday 1 June 2005.
The Liaison Group for European Civil Society Organisations and Networks [1] of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is drafting a statement on this issue as a preparation for its next meeting on 13 May 2005.
For more information see the press release from the third meeting of the liaison group.
