Our financing
Where can I find who sponsors the European Values Center?
We always include a transparent list of our partners for a given year in our annual reports. In accordance with the strictest transparency standards, since 2013, we have been directing all our new projects to our transparent account in CZK, EUR, USD, and GBP.
Ideally, we would like to be supported by a wider variety of funding sources; unfortunately, Czech society is not quite used to helping activities that try to improve political culture (not only in connection with the topic of financial corruption) and evaluate the work of politicians and make expert recommendations. As we value our independence, we do not accept any funding that could damage our name or endanger our integrity in any way.
Our outputs are the evidence of our autonomy as we apply a degree of constructive criticism to the work of individual legislators, political parties, and public institutions, including the government of the Czech Republic and EU institutions.
In more developed countries, it is customary that public institutions and private foundations commission non-governmental specialized organizations to conduct studies or implement projects that they are, for any reason, unable to do on their own. We are proud to be able to win public tenders at both the Czech and the European level in competitions with similarly equipped non-governmental specialized organizations. Therefore, it definitely cannot be said that we “live from endowments” as we operate in the competitive environment of think-tanks and research institutes.
When you implement a project in cooperation with EU institutions, whose opinion do you follow?
Always only our own opinion, which is the result of discussions of our professional team. Projects in cooperation with any institution take place by writing a project proposal for a specific tender. The actual implementation of the project is always according to our vision. The opinion expressed in any of our outputs is never tied to a particular project partner. The evidence can again be found in the wording of our specific outcomes, in which we do not limit the evaluation of the work of specific EU institutions.
We implement several projects with partners from different parts of the political spectrum, proving that our activities appear to be beneficial to institutions and foundations with differing ideological foundations.
Whose interest do you serve in your outputs?
Our outputs represent only our opinions. In no case are we ever funded by any partner to promote someone else’s views. Everything we say or write is based on our beliefs and perceptions of the world with an emphasis on values that we consider essential.
There is no hidden partner or sponsor behind European Values Center. Management is accountable to the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board and acts according to good administration principles. Membership in the administrative and supervisory board is voluntary and is not paid.
How do you cooperate with state institutions and political parties?
As a standard think-thank, we work with various state institutions and political parties on a formal and informal basis to promote our recommendations. We clarify and support our recommendations, provide consultations or closed briefings. Our cooperation with political parties is limited by the fact that we systematically avoid association with extremist parties (in the current parliamentary composition, these are primarily KSČM AND SPD).
