 In 1998, the EEB led the issue group on public participation of the pan-European coalition on environmental citizens' organizations, later named as European ECO Forum, which was closely involved in the negotiating phase of the UNECE Aarhus Convention.At 2013, it was considered as one of the seven core environmental organizations in Europe, together with Friends of the Earth Europe (FFoE), Greenpeace International, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Climate Network Europe (CNE), the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E), and BirdLife International.EU political institutions had a large role in the formation and maintenance of Brussel-based umbrella- and federation type groups representing the EU civil society, through direct funding relationships (estimated around 80 per cent in 2005) from the Union budget, and by virtue of an early preference of the Commission for engaging only with EU level groups.