WRITTEN QUESTION E-1076/98 by Wilfried Telkämper (V) to the Commission (6 April 1998)

Subject: Cooperation between ECHO and NGOs

In its special report on ECHO the Court of Auditors criticized the fact that one third of the ECHO budget went to French non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

This could give rise to the suspicion that the criterion for awarding ECHO funds is not how competent the NGO is but how well known it is to the ECHO officials. In order to ensure that ECHO is aware of the major European NGOs and not just those in a few Member States, it is important that officials from all the Member States should work in ECHO and take part in important political decisions. Can the Commission say how many officials, and from what Member States, it has appointed to A-grade posts in ECHO? What steps has the Commission taken to diversify A-grade staff structures?

It is crucial to effective humanitarian assistance that the European NGOs involved should be well acquainted with the disaster or crisis area and have local contacts and partner organisations in the country. How does the Commission explain the fact that again and again NGOs that do not fulfil these criteria are the ones implementing ECHO aid while projects proposed by other bodies which have partner organisations in the country in question are turned down?

Smaller NGOs often have valuable specialist knowledge. However, since they have only limited financial resources, they rely on ECHO's reimbursing their outgoings as quickly as possible. What is ECHO doing to take advantage of the expert knowledge of small organisations?

Answer given by Ms Bonino on behalf of the Commission (14 May 1998)

The Commission is forwarding direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's General Secretariat a table taken from the statistical bulletin on the Commission's staff. This gives a breakdown of Commission department officials by Member State of origin. When recruiting staff or moving staff between departments, the Commission encourages a diversification of nationalities. It should be considered, however, that this spans all of the Commission and cannot focus on one single department.

The Commission agrees with the Honourable Member on the need to involve non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which have specialist knowledge of a particular area or partners on the spot. This is in line with Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/96 of 20 June 1996 concerning humanitarian aid ((OJ L 163, 2.7.1996. )), which stipulated that one of the factors which should be taken into consideration in determining an NGO's eligibility for financing was its ability and readiness to work with humanitarian agencies and the grassroots communities in the countries in question. Also considered is prior experience in those countries. The Commission selects NGOs and projects with these criteria in mind wherever possible.

Where local infrastructure is inadequate because of natural disasters or fighting, NGOs are chosen according to other criteria: their technical and logistical capabilities and their ability to mobilise aid for the needy as fast as possible.

The Commission is well aware that small NGOs can make a contribution, and that they sometimes face financial hurdles. In that connection, it has included in the new framework partnership contract the option of advancing 80% of the project cost. This is likely to expand cooperation with small NGOs in the future.