Accountability of NGOs 

Civil society interest groups of various national or international origins, NGOs and think tanks in the European Union all play a key role in policy-making. The European Commission supports the development of such organisations in order to assure a balanced counterweight to the interests of powerful industrial lobbies. 

EU funding of environmental organizations is perhaps the most visible, and, in keeping with the concept of    transparency , the European Commission publishes data showing the amounts disbursed to support environmental groups. 

However, the quest for balanced policy debate has caused some to complain that the Community is fostering a biased system where accountability among EU Actors is not consistent, due to questions about the legitimacy and representation of interest groups.

• The other main resources of NGOs - membership fees and sales of publications or products - are perceived as better for independence and grass roots legitimacy, but seldom suffice. 
• On the other hand, EU funding may create unhealthy relationships between pressure groups and institutional actors that raise questions of ethics, corruption and conflicts of interest.
• Increased public-private partnerships between industry and NGOs have already caused some to accuse the latter of "selling out" to industry, inviting them to greater accountability. So, some NGOs claim that public funding is a healthy counter-balance to industry funding.
• Interest groups based outside the European Union that do not benefit from Community funding are disadvantaged versus "favoured" organisations.
• Growing private sector perception in business circles that the European Union's "participatory democracy" sometimes leads to results contradicting the Lisbon Process, eg. when unrealistic expectations from industry are created.
• Private industry complains of a double standard: organizations receiving public funding are not always held accountable to the same standards of transparency as private corporations (i.e. financial reporting requirements differ from country to country).

WWF attempts to bring about transparency in its functioning by being open and honest about its practices, its activities, and its methods of work. Most information concerning how WWF works, who its partners are, and its level of income and expenditure are found in various places on its website. 

Friends of the Earth - "The attention on NGO accountability is a distraction from the much more pressing issue of corporate accountability given transnational corporations are massive economies having a huge impact on many people's lives and the environment". 

American Enterprise Institute - "While many NGOs have made significant contributions to human rights, the environment, and economic and social development, a lack of international standards for NGO accountability also allows far less credible organizations to have a significant influence on policymaking." 

One World Trust - Its Global Accountability Project aims to assess how open and receptive global organisations are to the internal demands of their members and the external demands of individuals and groups who are affected by the organisations daily operations. 

Researchers from the UN University warn that there are two main problems in expanding and institutionalising participation of NGOs and other associations: 

• how to ensure that they are truly representative and how to hold them accountable?
• how can NGOs remain independent and critical if they are part of the institutionalised decision making process?

Professor Rinus van Schendelen , Erasmus University Rotterdam, says: "NGOs appear to have relatively easy access to EU officials, as the latter consider them less 'dangerous' than national government officials and less 'selfish' than corporate people, and, 'closer to the citizens' than others. That easy access gives NGOs an advantage in PA and lobbying, which makes the playing field less level." See Chapter 7 of his book,   Machiavelli in Brussels .