Alfter's investigative report contends that several EU member states do not meet the legal requirements of the CFP. (Photo: O. Hjellestad)

Report criticises CFP transparency efforts by the EU

EUROPEAN UNION
Thursday, October 01, 2009, 03:50 (GMT + 9)

Member states of the European Union (EU) have been failing to make the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) transparent, according to a report released by FishSubsidy.org. The information was found too complicated to access and numerous member states are not meeting legal requirements, the report pointed out.

The report “Slipping through the net: How EU countries evade new budget transparency rules” by investigative journalist Brigitte Alfter provides an overview of the access to information on EU fish subsidies and shows how its weaknesses make it difficult for citizens to learn how their money is being used.

Europe’s Administrative, Audit and Anti-fraud Commissioner Siim Kallas launched the European Transparency Initiative in 2005 to enhance transparency at the EU level. Member states are required to publish the names of subsidy recipients and their operations plus all amounts of public funding allocated since 1 May 2007.

Yet, the report illustrates that this information remains difficult to access. Several member states, it found, do not meet the legal requirements.

The report examines whether the information is easily accessible, presented in English or one of the other EU working languages, whether the format is user-friendly and if is it possible to download the information per member state and year in different formats.

“Citizens, journalists, political parties and public-interest groups should have direct access to the information – making it easier for citizens and public officials at national and EU-level alike. Unfortunately, this has not happened,” the report reads.

“The publication of names of beneficiaries represents real progress in budget transparency, but this has been accompanied by a reduction in the quality and detail of data and its fragmentation into dozens of often inaccessible sources. With the responsibility for publication of data -- including the choice of data format -- left to member states, European citizens are cast into a maze of different languages, formats, places and modes of publication,” Alfter continued.

She ranked EU member states on compliance with the law, accessibility and the provision of additional information not legally required. The study found a great variation between the top countries like Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Belgium, and the worst, such as the UK, Greece, France, Ireland, Italy, Malta and Portugal.

“The aims of the European Transparency Initiative are laudable but too often the ball has been dropped at the implementation stage,’’ said Jack Thurston, executive director of EU Transparency and co-founder of both farmsubsidy.org and its sister project fishsubsidy.org.

Alfter recommends that the data on fisheries subsidy payments be published in one place according to a clear and consistent template. The European Commission (EC), she wrote, should lead and make member states responsible for the accuracy of the data.

Fishsubsidy.org is a project coordinated by EU Transparency, a non-profit organisation in the UK and the US-based charitable foundation Pew Charitable Trusts.

Related articles:

- Current policy needs overhaul: study
- Website makes EU fishing subsidies public

By Natalia Real
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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