Nefco continues to comply with the requirements for managing EU funds – passing the assessment of four new pillars

Nefco, the Nordic Green Bank, continues to be fully compliant with the European Commission’s requirements for indirectly managing funds from the EU. Nefco received the green light from the Commission after the assessment of the four new pillars defined by the EU Financial Regulation in 2019. Nefco passed the assessment of the seven pillars in 2015.

The pillar assessment aims to assess the organisation’s compliance with the Commission’s requirements for indirect management of EU funds. Nefco is currently directly and indirectly managing a number of trust funds for environmental and climate-related projects in different parts of the world, including the EU Neighbourhood Investment Platform with focus on municipalities in Ukraine. Having passed the complementary pillar assessment, Nefco continues to be eligible to manage EU funds.

Tita Anttila, General Counsel and Head of Legal and Project Administration of Nefco, commented that the assessment is valued beyond the EU. “As an administrator of a number of trust funds and implementing agency for various multilateral programmes, it is important for us to comply with strict fiduciary standards. Other donors, financial institutions and multilateral programmes also value the pillar assessment when they look for partners and implementing agencies.”

The new pillars assessed

In 2015, Nefco passed the assessment for the then seven pillars. In April 2019, the Commission introduced a revised Terms of Reference for Pillar Assessments, consisting of a total of nine pillars. As Nefco had already passed the earlier pillar assessment, focus was now on the new pillars:

6. Tax avoidance, non-cooperative jurisdictions, anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism under financial instruments
7. Exclusion from access to funding
8. Publication of information on recipients
9. Protection of personal data

What is a pillar assessment?

A pillar assessment aims to assess an organisation’s compliance with the European Commission’s requirements for indirect management of EU funds, as defined in the EU Financial Regulations. For organisations to be eligible, they must meet certain conditions and pass an assessment of their operations by an independent auditor. Since the introduction of the revised Terms of Reference for Pillar Assessments by the European Commission in April 2019, up to nine pillars may be assessed.

For further information, please contact:

Tita Anttila, General Counsel, Nefco
tita.anttila@nefco.int, +358 40 504 7292

Josefin Hoviniemi, VP Communications, Nefco
josefin.hoviniemi@nefco.int, +358 50 464 6995

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