Source: European Parliament
The Commission would like to clarify that the sum of EUR 795 million disclosed on the Financial Transparency System (FTS)[1] represents the amount consumed on commitments in which Oxfam was one of the recipients (direct management) or an implementing partner (indirect management), considering all beneficiaries and the project as a whole .
Within this amount, in the period 2014-2023, 26 entities, residing in 19 countries, having the word Oxfam in their name, have been awarded EUR 636 million (direct management) and two of them have also implemented EUR 1 million (indirect management[2]).
I n accordance with the validation rules[3], ‘non-profit entity’ means an ‘entity that is non-profit making by its legal form or legal purpose (e.g. charitable organisations), or that has a legal or statutory obligation not to distribute profits to its shareholders or members’. This status is systematically checked against supporting documents and validated by the Central Validation Service of the Commission.
The Commission refers to its replies to the European Court of Auditor’s Special Report 11/2025[4], where it mentioned that ‘carrying out an economic activity is compatible with the nature of a non-governmental organisation (NGO), for as long as any profits it generates from its activities are not distributed to its members’.
In this sense, engaging in commercial transactions or the salary level of employees of an entity do not prevent a ‘non-profit’ status of an entity.
If the activity of the NGO qualifies as economic, the NGO can be subject to state aid rules. Article 107 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union[5] (TFEU) generally prohibits state aid by Member States to prevent distortions of competition in the internal market.
However, exemptions from this general ban exist based on the TFEU. Member States are required to notify the aid to the Commission, unless their measure is covered by a block exemption[6] or is too low to raise competition concerns[7]. For EU funding, State aid rules do not in principle apply.
- [1] https://ec.europa.eu/budget/financial-transparency-system/index.html (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).
- [2] The Financial Transparency System (FTS) discloses information on the implementing partners of EU funds managed under indirect management mode since year 2020. The information for the period 2014-2019 is not available on the FTS portal.
- [3] EU Funding & Tenders Portal validation rules : https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/guidance/rules-lev-lear-fca_en.pdf.
- [4] https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/publications?ref=SR-2025-11.
- [5] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:12008E107.
- [6] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM%3A0802_4.
- [7] De minimis aid (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM%3A0802_2).