Beneficiaries of EU funds implemented directly by the Commission in 2017 released

The European Commission has published today on its Financial Transparency System (FTS) webpage the information about beneficiaries of EU funds directly implemented by the Commission in 2017, which represent around 20% of the total EU budget expenditure. The database has been updated with concrete names and locations of recipients as well as exact types and amounts of funding implemented in 2017. To increase the quantity of information made available to the public and improve clarity of data, FTS now allows searching for beneficiaries at a regional level in greater capacity through the NUTS2 classification and exporting the freely accessible database.

Through grants and other forms of financing, the EU budget provided financial support to tens of thousands of beneficiaries such as students, scientists, Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Not-for-profit organizations (NFPO), small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), towns, regions and many others.

For more transparency and clarity the NUTS2 classification, which allows searching for beneficiaries at a regional level, is now available in greater capacity. The classification data is already provided for about 77% of all FY2017 recipients and will increase in the future as refinement efforts in the matching of postcodes progress.

If you are interested in environmental issues, for example, you can now search the database for the beneficiaries of the LIFE+ programme and find out which entity or group of entities received money in 2017, in which country or region, how much exactly and for which purpose.

In order to facilitate the further use of data you can export your search results from the FTS freely accessible database: you can get up to 100 results immediately and above 100 results within a few minutes (by email).

What is published on FTS

The online FTS database provides only information on the beneficiaries of funds implemented directly by the Commission between 2007 and 2017 (representing around 20% of the total EU budget expenditure). For instance, it informs you that during the 2007-2017 period about 411 000 commitments (so-called 'items') were recorded in the system. It also specifies the names and locations of the thousands of beneficiaries, which were allocated a total of EUR 218 billion during this period.  Beneficiaries of the European Development Fund in 2010-2017 are also recorded in the system. For the year 2017 alone, there were more than 31 000 budgetary commitments recorded with the total amount for all beneficiaries of more than EUR 22.5 billion.

In practice, around 75% of the EU budget is managed by national or regional governments (under the so-called 'shared management' mode). EU Member States are thus responsible for publishing data on the beneficiaries of the funds they oversee. These data are not published on the FTS but on national websites.

Background information

The FTS is operational since 2007. It was created following the European Transparency Initiative launched by the Commission in 2005. It is one of the European Commission's most important tools to increase EU funding transparency. Since 2008, the data has been published annually, usually by the end of June for the previous financial year. The European Commission continuously strives to improve its efforts for transparency. Therefore, the amount of information made available to the public is increasing every year.

Since 2012, public procurement contracts lower than EUR 15 000 as well as EU staff-related information and some confidential items are excluded from publication. This includes items concerning natural persons who would see their rights and freedoms at risk after the disclosure of such information.

Since 2016 NGO and NFPO search is available. In the absence of a universally applied definition of NGO, the Commission considers as NGO any non-profit, non-public law body (NFPO) independent of public authorities, political parties and commercial organisations. The NGO information that the Commission has available is based on self-declarations by entities receiving funding from EU funds through grant agreements or contracts directly managed by the Commission. These self-declarations are mainly requested for statistical purposes and are not subject to a general validation by Commission services. However, the non-profit status of an entity (NFPO), that is practically an essential element of an NGO, is subject to validation as this criterion can be objectively assessed through the non-profit making legal form of the entity.

In case you require additional information or help, for example if you experience difficulties re-using data found on the FTS, please contact the BUDG-FTS mailbox: BUDG-FTSec [dot] europa [dot] eu (BUDG-FTS[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

Financial Transparency System (direct management)
National websites (shared management)
Q&A on FTS