Source: European Parliament
The Commission adheres strictly to its transparency obligations as outlined in the Financial Regulation[1], its Article 38 requires publishing information about recipients of funds financed from the EU budget.
All required information on recipients of EU funding, including the names of recipients and amounts are already public and available in the Financial Transparency System[2]. The objectives and results of the projects may be found on the Funding and Tenders Portal[3].
Furthermore, interest representatives that register in the Transparency Register (TR)[4] as not representing commercial interests, which would typically include non-governmental organisations (NGOs), are required to report their lobbying activities and declare their main funding sources as well as the amount of each contribution above EUR 10 000 exceeding 10% of their total budget and the name of the contributor in their registrations in the TR.
The Commission’s assessment confirms that all ongoing grant agreements are in full compliance with the relevant legal framework, as adopted by the European Parliament and the Council. The Commission does not require NGOs to lobby against or to support specific EU policy initiatives.
The existing regulatory framework already sets out clear obligations regarding ethics and integrity, both for Commissioners and staff members.
Rules on the avoidance of conflicts of interest and the obligation to act with impartiality are well established, as is the reporting obligation for staff when their impartiality may be compromised.
In such cases the institution may impose mitigating measures. In cases where there is evidence of a breach, the Commission has established clear procedures for internal administrative inquiries and disciplinary action and where necessary refers the matter for further examination to the competent investigative bodies and authorities.
- [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=OJ:L_202402509
- [2] https://ec.europa.eu/budget/financial-transparency-system/analysis.html
Example: go to ‘Analyse’ and choose the criteria of interest (e.g. year, EU programme, type of contract, type of organisation). ( The annual publications are based on Article 38 of the Financial Regulation whereby data on recipients is not disclosed for very low value contracts below EUR 15 000 and where disclosure risks threatening the rights and freedoms of the persons or entities). - [3] https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/projects-results?isExactMatch=true&order=DESC&pageNumber=1&pageSize=10&sortBy=title
Example: go to Home>Projects & results>EU Funded projects>choose the project of interest. - [4] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32021Q0611(01)