WRITTEN QUESTION E-0482/02

by Adriana Poli Bortone (UEN), Cristiana Muscardini (UEN),Roberta Angelilli (UEN), Sergio Berlato (UEN), Roberto Bigliardo (UEN),Antonio Mussa (UEN), Sebastiano Musumeci (UEN), Mauro Nobilia (UEN)and Franz Turchi (UEN) to the Commission

(22 February 2002)

Subject: Survey on non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

NGOs (non-governmental organisations) are taking on an increasingly important role on the international political and economic scene. Many international, European and national institutions

as well as governments have given such organisations responsibility for the administrative and economic management of substantial funds allocated to large-scale projects, especially in the field of humanitarian aid. Many of these organisations have also become major partners of governments and international institutions and are consulted prior to any important decision being taken.

In view of this increasingly important role which they play in the EU's consultation and, hence, decision-making processes, but also the repeated cases of mismanagement which have come to light, it is clearly necessary to guarantee maximum transparency and to establish specific rules governing the status of NGOs, as partners recognised and respected by the Community institutions.

In view of the above,

1. would the Commission indicate what criteria are used as a basis for recognising an organisation as an NGO and what checks are carried out, before and after recognition is granted, to ensure that the organisation is entirely reliable?

2. will the Commission supply a list of non-governmental organisations recognised to date, indicating which of them are responsible for the management of substantial funds from the Community budget?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(8 April 2002)

1. The Commission would like to stress that it does not apply an overall accreditation system under which non-governmental organisations (NGOs) could acquire the status of an organisation recognised by the Commission.

Consequently, a participation of NGOs in Commission consultation processes or as beneficiaries of Community programmes and projects is generally not depended on prior registration or accreditation.

In the field of humanitarian aid, effective response to emergency situations requires expedite decision-making procedures. For this reason, a screening procedure of implementing organisations was introduced in 1993, enabling the Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) to avoid the cumbersome and time-consuming need for repeated calls for tenders normally applicable to grant subsidies. This screening procedure is known as the Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA).

The screening and selection procedure of implementing organisations obeys to precise and predefined rules. ECHO's standard procedure for processing applications stems from its legal basis (Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/96 of 20 June 1996 concerning humanitarian aid(1), Articles 7.1 and 7.2), as well as from the Financial Regulation and its implementing measures.

ECHO's policy has always been to avail itself of the most adequate implementers for each humanitarian operation, in order to guarantee that the aid is delivered in the most effective way to the beneficiaries. That is why, on the basis of the operational needs and of the specific capacities of a given NGO, ECHO can exceptionally conclude operational contracts with organisations that are not (yet) signatories of the FPA.

On the issue of consultation of NGOs, it should be noted that the Commission, in its White Paper on Governance, has committed itself to make the participation of NGOs and other civil society organisations in structured consultation bodies more transparent. The Commission is therefore creating a database that will contain information about these consultation forums and the organisations represented in them. Once all data have been collated, the database will be available on the EUROPA server.

2. The Commission's Vade-mecum on Grant Management stipulates that all Commission departments publicise all the information on grants awarded by these departments once a year on EUROPA. This is done on a decentralised basis, i.e. on the homepages of the various departments concerned. The list of ECHO's partners is also publicly available on the Internet(2).

(1) OJ L 163, 2.7.1996.

(2) http://europa.eu.int/comm/echo/en/index_en.html.