Some Eurodiputs cannot be more graphics: if you throw a piece of shit against the wall, they say, however you try to clean it, something will be stuck. This is what, they fear, it has happened with the last onslaught against several NGOs, especially environmental ones, which work in Brussels, whose financing and activity has been questioned by conservative MEPs that accuse them of receiving funds from the European Commission with the order of Do to “manipulate” legislators in favor of environmental policies and who want to review all the public aid they receive.
The campaign, launched from the European Parliament Budget Control Commission, has been partially neutralized by Eurodiputados of the center and the left of the hemicycle, which have achieved at least that the investigation demanded by conservatives is extended to other groups of Interest, not only NGOs, as the European Popular Party (PPE) was looking for.
But the reputational damage to civil organizations, analysts and legislators agree, is made. The shadow of the doubt about one of the key instruments of surveillance of the institutions has been planted. And this happens just when from the right and extreme right to dismantle the European Green Pact, an openly recognized goal by the ultras forces reinforced from the European elections of June and that they feel revalidated with the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House.
“To exist in front of Trump’s United States, you have to unlock all brakes to growth in France and Europe. I want the immediate suspension of the Green Pact, ”said the president of the French national regrouping and leader in the Eurocamara of the Ultra Patriots For Europe (PFE) parliamentary group, Jordan Bardella, whose European formation, Patriots.eu, celebrates one in Brussels, Bardella Find alliances: At the end of January, he sent a letter with a “proposition of coalition for the suspension of the green pact” to the PPE, to the conservatives and reformists (ECR) of Giorgia Meloni and the most ultras in Europe of the sovereign nations (Esn ). The PPE has rejected it, but at least ECR says “open to debate.” In addition, the one that is the third force in the Eurocamara, after the conservatives and the social democrats of S&D, has created a “working group for the reform of the green pact”, although without apparent activity for the moment.
Many in Brussels do not believe that the attacks on NGOs arrive in full campaign to weaken the green pact, the EU growth strategy based on an ecological transition that allows to achieve climatic neutrality in 2050. Although they come long, they have charged Force since the German conservative Monika Hohlmeier and other members of the PPE of the Budget Control Commission openly questioned in the plenary of the end of January in Strasbourg her work.
“How can there be guidelines in the contracts of the commission for the manipulation of legislative procedures?” Hohlmeier launched in the Chamber, while his party partner, Dirk Grounge, described the NGOs as NGOs “lobby in the shadow ”.
Both, supported by other conservative and extremely right Eurosputados, have claimed a review of the public financing of several NGOs, especially environmental.
But legislators who have had access to the questioned contracts are overwhelming: “There has been nothing, nothing, which can legally be reproached. The debate is being misrepresented by the right, ”says the Spanish socialist Eurodiput José Cepeda, also a member of the Budget Control Commission. Same of taxative is his German (and green) colleague Daniel Freund: “The contracts I have seen so far are fine, I don’t understand what the problem is.” The newspaper Politicowhich has reviewed 28 of the questioned contracts, also states that “nowhere does the commission give direct instructions to lobby in its name.”
Even so, Grounge says that “research” will continue on organizations. “The European Commission finances NGOs in Brussels that press to promote its proposals and its political agenda. This has to stop. He undermines the separation of powers and the legitimacy of the legislation, ”he insisted on an X message.
The public financing of NGOs is carried out through the Life European Fund, created to support projects in favor of environmental shares and endowed with 5.4 billion euros for the 2021-2027 period. Of course, the, that is, aimed at lover (0.006% of the EU budget), with individual endowments of a maximum of 700,000 euros.
A pyrrhic figure in a city like Brussels, where multimillionaire sums move every year to promote industry interests and other private sectors. According to organizations such as Corporate Europe Observatory or International Transparency – also in the sights of the PPE – in 2024, the 50 main companies spent almost 200 million euros in Lobby in Brussels, 66% more than in 2015.
The objective of the EU when financing NGO is to ensure that the voice of the civil society they represent is heard when European policies are decided. Something already difficult, as seen on Thursday at a meeting in the European Commission to discuss the regulatory “simplification” project with which it wants to promote the competitiveness of the continent and that, many fear, also threatens to weaken key environmental laws . 57 business representatives were invited to the appointment, including Lobists of the Exxonmobil and Totalenergies oil giants, and only two union representatives and ten NGOs, a proportion of five to one, according to the ETUC European Union denounced.
“We need a strong civil society voice in Brussels so that environmental protection has a seat on the table next to the corporate lobby and industrial giants when environmental policies are made for all of Europe,” insists Daniel Freund. “The proposals of the conservatives are equivalent to a prohibition of de facto work for NGOs,” warns the German, who sees in the PPE strategy the Hungarian ultra -nationalist prime minister – and star speaker at the Ultra Summit of Madrid – who undertook a crusade against critical civil organizations.
It is not the only one. Ariel Brunner, director of Birdlife Europe, reflected this week on the “attack on democracy” that supposes the strategy launched by the conservatives. “When you want to kill democracy, you go against NGOs, against the free press and then against the judges. It is the classic move manual of anyone who wants to concentrate absolute power. And this attack on the NGO is part of that vision of the world, ”he warned.
