The European Commission has adopted Guidelines for Member States on national level coordination structures and vulnerabilities of the non-profit sector.
According to these guidelines, the Commission will set up an "informal contact group" with civil society and will organise a conference with representatives of the non-profit sector and other relevant stakeholders during the course of 2006.
The document is marked by a specific willingness to avoid a “one-size-fits-all” approach, recognise the specificity of NGO activity on the field, but also to stress empiric evidence of misuse of NGOs by terrorist organisations.
Following the publication of the Communication, the Justice and Home Affairs Council met on 1 and 2 December 2005. In particular, the conclusions state that the Council:
Reaffirms its willingness to agree on a Code of Conduct
Invites the Member States to note the Commission’s communication
Welcomes the organization of an expert conference in 2006
Agrees on five key principles:
> Safeguarding the integrity of the non-profit sector is a shared responsibility of states and non-profit organisations.
> Dialogue between Member States, the non-profit sector and other relevant stakeholders is essential to build robust defences against terrorist finance.
> Member States should continually develop their knowledge of their non-profit sector, its activities and vulnerabilities.
> Transparency, accountability and good governance lie at the heart of donor confidence and probity in the non-profit sector.
> Risks of terrorist finance are managed best where there are effective, proportionate measures for oversight.
Invites Member States to commit to implementing domestic measures to prevent terrorist abuse of the non-profit sector, taking account of these five principles and of those agreed by the members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Acknowledges the positive contribution of the non-profit sector as well as the need to preserve its diversity.
Background information
European Commission’s Directorate General for Justice, Freedom and Security opened a consultation on 26 July on a draft Recommendation to member-states regarding a "voluntary" Code of Conduct for Non-Profit Organizations in order to promote a so-called "transparency and accountability".
Since 11 September 2001, fight against terrorism has become one of the key priorities of the European Union, and the July attacks over London made it an ever more acute priority for the UK presidency of the European Union. Expressing concerns that ’non-profit sector’ has been exploited for the ’financing of terrorism and criminal abuse’, the European Commission suggested that the sector adheres to a code of conduct to combat this. In this view, it launched an open consultation on a Code of Conduct for non-profit organisations to Promote Transparency and Accountability, published on the Justice and Home Affairs website at the end of July, until 26th August 2006. This attempt to regulate Non Profit Organisations at European level (through a code of conduct that would be implemented by Member States) has raised strong concerns within the NGOs community (CSCG).
First of all, even if the objective is understandable and desirable the means are not the better. Surveillance of terrorist organisations is a matter for the police and not to be left to voluntary codes of conduct.
Secondly, while expressing a desire to have a broad consultation of non-profit sector actors, the Commission had only given 5 weeks for the consultation (less than then 8 weeks set by their own minimum standards for consultation) and this during the holiday period.
The deadline was extended until the 19 September after complaints by the Social Platform (of which EPHA is a member) and the Civil Society Contact Group.
You can read EPHA’s detailed response to this consultation in the document below.
