Source: European Parliament
The Commission refers to its replies to the European Court of Auditors’ Special Report 11/2025[1].
A definition of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) has been recently included in the Financial Regulation (FR),[2] together with the need to indicate in a direct management grant application whether the entity is an NGO.
The Commission will explore whether this recent definition of an NGO should and could be further clarified. Such clarification should not increase administrative burden for NGOs, be proportionate and not limit access to EU funds.
There is no indication that the NGO status poses a higher risk for the EU budget, compared to other types of entities. The NGO status is generally not a prerequisite for receiving EU funding.
The Commission will explore increasing the frequency of updates in the Financial Transparency System[3]. In accordance with Article 38 FR, the Commission will make available on a centralised website information on recipients of EU funds under all management modes as for post 2027 programmes.
The Commission’s current data mining and risk-scoring tool ‘Arachne’ serves control and audit, and not to verify respect of EU values.
The FR provides for further development of this IT tool only as regards control and audit functions[4]. The Commission is open to exploring the feasibility of introducing further risk indicators to enhance checks on compliance with EU values, provided this is technically possible and in line with the applicable rules.
Any such assessment could be carried out only following the further development of Arachne, which is to be delivered by the end of 2027.
Interest representatives that apply for EU funding, which would typically include NGOs, must register in the Transparency Register[5] and declare their main sources of funding, the amount of each contribution above EUR 10 000 exceeding 10% of their total budget and the name of the contributor.
- [1] https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/publications?ref=SR-2025-11.
- [2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202402509.
- [3] https://ec.europa.eu/budget/financial-transparency-system/index.html; the annual publications are based on Article 38 of the Financial Regulation (OJ L 2024/2509, 26.9.2024, p. 1-239), and in accordance with the third paragraph of the article, information on recipients is not disclosed in specific cases outlined therein.
- [4] See recitals 29-32 and Article 36 of the FR. See also the Joint statement of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on the single data mining and risk-scoring tool provided for in Article 36 of the Financial Regulation on the occasion of the adoption of Regulation 2024/2509, OJ C, C/2024/5767, 26.9.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/5767/oj.
- [5] https://transparency-register.europa.eu/index_en.