ECNL's Accountability and Transparency Study presented to representatives of EU Member States

13-02-2009
Discussions at the meeting focused on the outcomes of the study, the recommendations and possible follow-up.

On February 12, in Brussels EC Directorate-General of Justice, Freedom and Security organized a consultation meeting to present the Study on Recent Public and Self-regulatory Initiatives Improving Transparency and Accountability of Non-profit Organisations in the European Union", which was developed by ECNL.

The meeting aimed to general dialogue between representatives from governments and CSOs from the Member States. The study was circulated to the participants, and they were asked to provide comments by mid-March. In addition to ECNL's presentation of the study; Ms. Sheila Nordon,from the Irish Charities Tax Research Ltd. presented the initiative concerning regulating fundraising through law and self-regulation mechanism, while Mr. Balazs Sator, from the Civil Society Development Foundation, Hungary presented the local initiative Trademark for Trust - effort to develop a certification model. These two initiatives are featured as separate case studies in the report.

The meeting also hosted government representatives from the US, Belgium, Czech Republic and Italy who presented their approaches in this field. ECNL conducted this study based on service contract with the European Commission Directorate-General of Justice, Freedom and Security.