Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – combating fraud – annual report 2023

30.4.2025 A10-0049/1

Amendment 1

Gilles Boyer

on behalf of the Renew Group

Report A10-0049/2025

Gilles Boyer

Protection of the European Union’s financial interests – combating fraud – annual report 2023

(2024/2083(INI))

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 36

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

36. Notes that civil society organisations are an essential component of a vibrant democratic society, ensuring the broad coverage of diverse views in public debates; recognises that these organisations may receive Union funds to support their work in contributing to democratic dialogue and public engagement; emphasises that transparency in stakeholder meetings is fundamental to democratic integrity and should apply equally to all entities engaging with EU institutions; stresses that clear documentation and disclosure of such interactions strengthens public trust and democratic accountability; stresses that lobbying should be transparent, with full disclosure of all parties involved; takes notes of the allegations that the Commission subsidises NGOs to influence Members of the European Parliament; stresses that, if their existence is confirmed, such practices could distort policy discussions and contravene the principle of separation of powers and should therefore be ended; calls on the ECA to audit the programmes concerned and give its recommendations; expects the future ECA report to bring clarity on these issues; recalls that the ECA asked, in special report 05/202429, for more efforts to be made to improve checks on the ground; notes with concern the ECA’s observation that lobbyists can choose to which category they belong, regardless of their legal form, to avoid disclosing financial information; notes that the EU is one of the largest global funders of civil society organisations; underlines the need for the EU Transparency Register Secretariat to enhance its systematic checks of the self-declarations of entities declaring themselves to be ‘NGOs, platforms, networks and similar’; observes that such systematic checks could be based on a set of criteria, including non-profit status, objectives relating to public benefit, and independence, to strengthen the trust in all entities registered in the EU Transparency Register, and should be supported by robust requirements for accountability and transparency;

36. Recalls the importance of civil society for the balance of power and the need to guarantee it a safe, supportive and enabling environment; deplores restrictions on civil society activity; insists on the need for the EU institutions to maintain and promote an open, transparent and structured dialogue with civil society organisations; recalls the commitment of the Commission in its political guidelines to step up its engagement with civil society organisations that have expertise and an important role to play in defending specific societal issues and upholding human rights; recalls that EU funding requires stringent accountability and transparency standards, in line with the ECA recommendations in special report 05/202429 and the recent special report 11/202529a; urges the Commission to ensure that the information disclosed in the Financial Transparency System is frequently updated, reliable, comparable and useful; stresses the need to allocate additional resources to the EU Transparency Register Secretariat to enable a systematic and thorough monitoring of the Transparency Register, which should include allocating resources towards AI implementation to develop an AI-based search mechanism; recalls the need to proactively check that all entities that are beneficiaries of EU funds respect EU values;

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29 ECA special report 05/2024 of 17 April 2024 entitled ‘EU Transparency Register – provides useful but limited information on lobbying activities’.

29a ECA special report 11/2025 of 7 April 2025 entitled ‘Transparency of EU funding granted to NGOs – Despite progress, the overview is still not reliable’.

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29 ECA special report 05/2024 of 17 April 2024 entitled ‘EU Transparency Register – provides useful but limited information on lobbying activities’.

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