{"id":2780,"date":"2016-03-21T00:32:10","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T05:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/\/"},"modified":"2016-03-19T21:52:55","modified_gmt":"2016-03-20T02:52:55","slug":"european-political-party-think-tanks-dark-money-alert-from-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/articles\/european-political-party-think-tanks-dark-money-alert-from-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"European Political Party Think Tanks: Dark Money Alert from Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

A study released last week<\/a> by the Observatorio de Think Tanks<\/a>\u00a0Transparify, a global initiative promoting transparency and integrity in policy research and advocacy. Observatorio de Think Tanks is an independent entity that uses Transparify\u2019s five star assessment scale but follows a different data quality control protocol. The Observatorio and its team operate independently from Transparify, and neither this author as an individual nor Transparify as an institution take any responsibility for the accuracy of the results reported here.\">+<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/em>reports that think tanks tied to political parties in Spain lack financial transparency, and warns that their opacity may violate national laws that mandate disclosure from publicly funded entities. The findings of the Spanish group are likely to draw lobbying campaigners\u2019 attention to the governance of similar institutions in Germany and other European Union countries where think tanks formally tied to political parties receive significant public funding while also soliciting donations from corporate and private sources.<\/p>\n

Visiting the websites of 13 think tanks tied to Spanish parties across the political spectrum, the Observatorio found that not a single one disclosed its funding streams in detail. Nine institutions did not even provide a complete list of all their sponsors, let alone who paid how much. \u201cNone of the political party foundations disclosed donations from individuals and enterprises,\u201d wrote the research group, warning that the combination between opaque financial management and weak regulatory oversight creates a situation in which parties\u2019 nonprofit research arms could be used to clandestinely fund political parties through the back door.<\/p>\n

On the positive side, the Observatorio reported that several independent think tanks in Spain have recently opened their books. The national leader is Fundaci\u00f3 Bofill, which was awarded the maximum 5-star rating and won praise<\/a> for \u201cpublishing its funding sources with clarity and without fear\u201d. Fundaci\u00f3 Catalunya Europa, CIDOB<\/a> and ECODES earned 4 stars each.<\/p>\n

Across all 46 think tanks that the group assessed, 15 provide more data than they did last year. The chart below visualizes the sector\u2019s gradual shift away from red and pink (highly opaque) towards green (transparent).<\/p>\n

\"Transparency
Transparency Rating of Spanish Think Tanks (Source: Observatorio de Think Tanks)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The average transparency score for Spanish think tanks rose from a rock bottom baseline of 0.7 stars last year to 1.2 stars this year. In comparison, the European Union average in 2015 was 2.8 stars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Observatorio de Think Tanks is a collaboration between five researchers<\/a>: Francesc Ponsa, Jaime Gonzalez-Capitel, Francesc Quintana Rubio, Marta Guasp Teschendorff, and Marta Tello. The group has announced that its next plan is to review and analyse Spanish think tanks\u2019 compliance with national transparency legislation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A study released last week by the Observatorio de Think Tanks\u00a0\u00a0reports that think tanks tied to political parties in Spain lack financial transparency, and warns that their opacity may violate national laws that mandate disclosure from publicly funded entities. The findings of the Spanish group are likely to draw lobbying campaigners\u2019 attention to the governance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[855,200,327,185,227],"class_list":["post-2780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-finance","tag-funding","tag-spain","tag-transparency","tag-transparify","article-types-research","people-till-bruckner","series-transparency","theme-funding-and-support-think-tanks"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthinktanks.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}