The Socialists and Democrats welcome the findings of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) regarding the compliance of funding civil society organisations from the EU budget. This follows the presentation of the EU Courts of Auditors’ report on the matter in the EP's committee on budgetary control. In its report the controller responsible for European Union spending is formal – NGOs are entitled to funding for their advocacy work, according to the EU Financial Regulation. The S&D Group calls on the European People's Party, the conservatives and the far-right groups to take good note of this report and stop the relentless and unjustified witch hunt they have declared on civil society.
Carla Tavares, S&D spokesperson in the European Parliament's committee on budgetary control, said:
“The ECA Special Report on transparency of EU funding granted to NGOs is formal – EU funding for NGO advocacy is legal, and also confirms it is in line with the EU’s legal transparency requirements as laid down in the EU Financial Regulation.
“We would like to remind our colleagues from the pro-European EPP Group it is shameful to side with the far right in its attempt to undermine key EU policies, especially given that the Members of the EPP Group themselves voted in favour of these policies in the previous term. To this we add the reply from the current Commissioner for budget, anti-fraud and public administration. Recently, he answered a written question by the committee of budgetary control confirming, once again, that EU funding was granted and used by NGOs in full respect of EU Treaties and LIFE Regulation when providing their expertise in the decision-making process of the European Green Deal.
“The EPP Group likes to address transparency, but in a selective way, which is totally unacceptable for us. This is why we agree with the European Court of Auditors – more should be done to improve transparency of EU funding received by all beneficiaries with no exceptions made.
“We, the Socialists and Democrats, call on the European Commission to implement the ECA recommendations regarding screening of self-declarations in the EU’s Financial Transparency System, as well as proactive monitoring of the respect to EU fundamental values and principles by all beneficiaries, not just the NGOs.”
