On 12 July 2022, the Council of Europe's Economic Crime and Cooperation Division (ECCD) organised an awareness raising Workshop on the Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs)’ sector terrorist financing risk assessment process of Bulgaria, as a targeted outreach activity towards the NPO representatives of the Plovdiv Province.
The Workshop was conducted in cooperation with Bulgarian authorities, namely the Bulgarian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), but it was also attended by representatives of the State Agency for National Security, Bulgarian National Bank, Financial Supervision Commission, National Revenue Agency, Ministry of the Interior and Commission for Anti-Corruption and Illegal Assets Forfeiture. The event was opened by the Bulgarian Financial Intelligence Unit representative who presented the current stage of the NPO sector terrorist financing risk assessment of Bulgaria. Furthermore, the Workshop was attended by the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law (BCNP), whose representative presented an overview of the analysis of the NPOs registered in Bulgaria regarding their relevance to the FATF definition.
The second part of the event was dedicated to the presentation of risk management measures for the purpose of preventing the abuse of NPOs for terrorist financing. Participants could benefit from a comprehensive overview of potential terrorist financing threats and risk factors for the NPO sector, which were accompanied by examples of actual cases. This was followed by a presentation of relevant international standards and measures taken at the global level, as well as by the provision of a set of recommendations for the NPO sector regarding the measures to be taken to prevent their abuse by terrorist organisations.
The Workshop was a follow-up to the previous awareness-raising event on the NPO Sectoral Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment held in Sofia, Bulgaria on 14 April 2022.
The event was organised within the framework of the Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP) project for Bulgaria “Enhancing capabilities of Bulgarian authorities to effectively mitigate money laundering and terrorist financing risks”, funded by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.