EU funding of NGOs 'too opaque', auditors find amid political storm

7.4 billion euros have been received by non-governmental organisations in three years. But what is an NGO anyway? Some are state-controlled, others pursue commercial interests.

The European Court of Auditors calls on the EU Commission to do more to make the system for allocating EU funds to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) transparent. In a new report, “Transparency of EU funds allocated to NGOs”, the judges conclude that “despite progress, the overview is not yet reliable.” The document follows, in fact, the 2018 report on the funds disbursed in the field of foreign policy and the 2024 special report on the EU tr…

Csaba Dömötör, a Fidesz MEP, has sharply criticized EU-funded left-wing activist groups and NGOs on social media after a Court of Auditors report revealed serious irregularities in their funding. The organizations representing Brussels interests and operating with EU money are carrying out political activities without accountability and transparency, often against the interests of taxpayers.

Brussels must overhaul ‘opaque’ funding of NGOs, say auditors

The damning report will give ammunition to conservative lawmakers who want to prevent NGOs from using EU money to lobby.

In 2022, a corruption scandal sparked a debate on EU funding for NGOs. A report by the European Court of Auditors now complains: there is too little transparency about money flowing to NGOs. By M. Reiche [more]]>

Despite the amount involved, some 7 billion euros between 2021 and 2023 alone, the European funding of NGOs is “too opaque”, with “inexact and incomplete” information that can put in check the transparency of these key organisations in democratic societies as a counterweight to business or partisan interests, warns the EU Court of Auditors in its latest report. An analysis that is known in full from the most conservative forces in Brussels again…