Brussels, 02/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - With the launch of the “Financial Transparency System” website (http://www.ec.europa.eu/grants/search/index_en.htm ) and search engine on Thursday 2 October, for the first time ever, there will be free access to details of who receives EU funds managed directly by the Commission and its executive agencies. The system contains approximately 28,000 entries on Commission-run programmes in policy areas like research, education and culture, energy and transport and certain aspects of aid to third countries.
The first year for which this information is available is 2007. Data relating to 2008 will be published in 2009, and, in 2010, the system will be further improved to include the procurement contracts from the Commission for its day-to-day administration.
Payments to Rural Development beneficiaries, too, will be put online. In a parallel development, all member states will, by 30 September 2008, have to put in place a website with information on payments from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) made between 1 January and 15 October 2007. The Commission has set up a web-portal which provides access to the national websites. By 30 April 2009, member states will be required to publish details of the recipients of all other agricultural payments. The European Transparency Initiative was launched by the Commission in 2005. (L.C./transl.rt)