Terrorism funding: Commission seeks more NGO transparency 

The Commission's Justice, Freedom and Security department is currently drafting a paper advising EU member states to increase transparency and accountability standards for the non-profit sector.

The draft recommendation proposes establishing an EU-wide code of conduct for non-profit groups who "engage in the raising and/or disbursing of funds for charitable, religious, cultural, educational, social or fraternal purposes, or for the carrying out of other types of good works."

While the paper acknowledges the "vital" role of the non-profit sector in carrying out public work including humanitarian tasks, it adds there is "nevertheless evidence, that non-profit organisations have been exploited for the financing of terrorism and for other kind of criminal abuse". 

NGOs would sign up to the code on a purely voluntary basis, the paper says. The recommendation would also serve member states to assess progress in the fight against the misuse of the non-profit sector for terrorist financing and to identify possible further measures at national level.

In a letter sent to DG Freedom, Security and Justice, the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS), a European NGO network, said it lacked information about the alleged exploitation of civil society organisations by terrorist groups mentioned in the Commission paper.

"Nowhere does the paper provide any indication of what kind of evidence exists, what form this exploitation takes and what other criminal abuses are being targeted".

On the idea of setting up a code of conduct for NGOs across all EU countries, ECAS is sceptical. "Codes of conduct are less effective and harder to apply across a vast, diffuse sector than legislation".