The European Commission has disclosed information on who received EU funds in the different areas in 2009 in its dedicated web-based search engine, see http://ec.europa.eu/beneficiaries/fts/index_en.htm.

The online database, which currently presents more than 114 thousand entries going back to 2007, allows to search information on the beneficiaries of grants and other forms of support awarded by the Commission, either directly or through executive agencies set up to help it run EU funded programmes (some 20% of the EU budget).

It is possible to have access to a wide variety of information regarding the funds including who receives the funds (beneficiary), where the beneficiary is located, the amount and type of expenditure, the responsible department (directorate-general (DG) or agency) which awarded the amount, which part of the EU budget (budget line) it comes from and the year in which the amount was booked in the accounts.

The information is extracted from the Commission's accounts and is based on the financial amounts committed in the budget for a given beneficiary. As of the year 2009, the site also contains procurement contracts and other administrative expenditure of the Commission, excluding staff costs.

EU budget managed by national administrations

The remaining part of the EU budget is handled mainly by the national administrations and the responsibility to publish the names of beneficiaries rests with them.

A general portal providing access to all websites with information on EU beneficiaries can be found at:

http://ec.europa.eu/contracts_grants/beneficiaries_en.htm