Latest news with #LIFEProgramme
Euronews
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
MEPs reject renewed attacks on NGO funding in EU budget review
ADVERTISEMENT The European Parliament's budgetary control committee has provisionally signed off on the EU's 2023 budget, largely voting down attempts by right-wing law makers to include harsh criticism of funding for non-governmental organisations in its final report. As well as rejecting a joint proposal by members of Hungary's ruling Fidesz party and France's Rassemblement National to condemn an 'enormous EU-NGO propaganda complex', the committee rejected a slew of amendments tabled by conservative European People's Party (EPP) lawmaker Monika Hohlmeier. Among them was a call for the EU Court of Auditors (ECA) to conduct a probe specifically into the LIFE Programme, the bloc's funding instrument for environmental projects on the ground, a small portion of which supports campaign groups through operating grants. Last week saw the parliament's environment committee reject a motion calling on the European Commission to halt such funding, after a handful of EPP lawmakers broke with the party line. Related MEPs reject call to halt funding for environmental NGOs The Luxembourg-based audit office yesterday censured the European Commission for the lack of transparency over its support for NGOs, but found no evidence of wrongdoing in the sample of funding agreements it examined during the year-long investigation. Niclas Herbst, who chairs the budgetary control committee and drafted its report into the EU's 2023 finances, said the ECA had confirmed its criticism of NGO funding. 'There is a lack of transparency and control as to whether the NGOs in question share our EU values at all. There is still no complete overview of EU funding to NGOs,' said Herbst, who is also an EPP member. For Carlotta Besozzi, director of the umbrella group Civil Society Europe, welcomed the 'more objective' language adopted by the committee. 'We are pleased to see that much of the language that suggested unfounded problems with the funding of NGOs has been removed,' she said. But green groups are not out of the woods yet, according to Patrizia Heidegger, the director general of the European Environmental Bureau, which represents a huge network of NGOs in Brussels, with the eurosceptic ECR group pushing for the parliament to establish a fully-fledged committee of inquiry into the funding issue. Related Commission denies singling out NGOs in green funding row 'An inquiry committee in the parliament is usually set up to investigate a real scandal such as LuxLeaks , massive fraud, corruption and other processes – not to continue a witch hunt against civil society organizations,' Heidegger said. The presidents of the various political groups in the European Parliament will have to decide in a weighted vote whether or not to go ahead with this initiative – with the decision effectively resting in the hands of the EPP, the largest group in the assembly.
Euronews
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Commission denies singling out NGOs in green funding row
ADVERTISEMENT After a vote during a fractious meeting of the European Parliament's environment committee, the row over the funding of non-governmental organisations in the EU policy bubble is rolling on, with a statement from the EU executive provoking criticism that it was bending to pressure from the political right. The conservative European People's Party (EPP) and allies further to the right lost by one vote on Monday evening a motion objecting to the EU executive's decision on funding NGOs through the LIFE Programme for the period 2025 to 2027. In a subsequent statement, the Commission noted that funding for NGOs was 'explicitly provided for in the LIFE Regulation' and that it remained 'fully committed to ensuring a healthy and vibrant civil society'. However, it also stated some work programmes attached to grant agreements 'contained specific advocacy actions and undue lobbying activities'. The EPP seized on the latter statement, with the co-sponsor of the censure motion Sander Smit saying the Commission had 'finally admitted' wrongdoing – although Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin did just that in the parliament in January, when he acknowledged use of EU funds to lobby MEPs was inappropriate. Related Use of EU funds to lobby MEPs was 'inappropriate', commissioner says Smit pointed to the EU executive's fresh commitment to preclude 'lobbying that targets specific policies or MEPs' from grant agreements, prevent conflicts of interest and review transparency. 'This is good news for EU taxpayers, for the integrity and balance of EU Institutions and for the separation of powers,' he said. 'It is also good news for those parts of civil society organisations that work transparently and fairly,' the Dutch lawmaker added. The European Environmental Bureau, among the largest green groups operating in Brussels, welcomed the Commission's acknowledgment of the 'essential role' of NGOs, but pointed to 'serious questions' the process had raised around 'blackmailing and backdoor influencing by some political groups'. Commission denies 'singling out' NGOs Faustine Bas-Defossez, the group's policy director, said public funding enabled NGOs to work in the public interest and represent voices that would otherwise go unheard by policy makers. 'If that's considered 'undue lobbying', then we must seriously question what those standards mean for the future of democratic accountability in Europe,' she said. The Socialists & Democrats group, second in size only to the EPP, slammed what it sees as submission to pressure from the right and demanded that environment commissioner Jessika Roswall explain why green groups are being 'singled out'. 'This politically motivated move risks legitimising right-wing attacks to silence civil society,' the S&D said on social media. 'We won't accept this.' Asked by Euronews to respond to this criticism, a spokesperson for the EU executive, Balazs Ujvari, said guidance issued last May applied to all beneficiaries of funding through the LIFE Programme, which has a budget of €5.43 billion for the period 2021-2027, of which NGOs shared about €15 million last year, with individual grants capped at €700,000. Private companies, local authorities and research foundations also receive LIFE funding, but the issues that prompted the EU executive to take action had arisen in relation to NGOs 'according to our own research and assessment', Ujvari said. 'We don't want to be seen as obliging…non-governmental organisations to lobby concrete members of the European Parliament,' the Commission official said. 'This is the main consideration for us.' Eurosceptics demand a parliamentary inquiry If the EPP's latest statement seemed somewhat conciliatory – they 'strongly support the LIFE programme and recognise the very important role of NGOs', the group's environment policy coordinator Peter Liese said – the same cannot be said for the co-sponsor of the failed parliamentary motion, the eurosceptic ECR group. Related MEPs reject call to halt funding for environmental NGOs On the morning after the vote, co-chair Nicola Procaccini told reporters in Strasbourg that the ECR wanted to set up a parliamentary committee of inquiry into what they are characterising as a full-blown corruption scandal. ADVERTISEMENT 'We have successfully gathered the required number of signatures to initiate the procedure for a formal committee of inquiry about the so-called Timmermans-gate,' Procaccini said, adding that the proposal would be put forward at the next meeting of parliamentary group presidents, who set the parliamentary agenda. However, it appears far from likely that the initiative will succeed. The ECR and its allies further to the right would need the support of the EPP, so the position of group leader Manfred Weber at the meeting on Thursday morning (3 April) will be decisive. An official contacted by Euronews said the group had not formally discussed the subject. 'However, the EPP generally does not support the multiplication of special parliamentary committees, especially when existing committees, such as CONT, are already fully capable of addressing the issue.' The official was referring to the parliament's committee on budgetary control, which is due to adopt on 7 April its report on the discharge of the Commission's 2023 budget. ADVERTISEMENT Greens co-chair Terry Reintke told Euronews that NGOs play an "essential role in balancing the interests of business in European legislation" and it "goes without saying that EU funds must be spent according to the rules", but she questioned the ECR's motives. "Following the script of Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán, ECR wants to silence NGOs and civil society, and we call on EPP members to stick with the democratic centre," the German lawmaker said. The EU Court of Auditors is due to present next week an eagerly awaited report into NGO funding that, although it will not specifically target groups operating primarily in the Brussels policy making bubble, will no doubt shine a light on the EU executive's monitoring and transparency practices.
Euronews
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
MEPs reject call to halt funding for environmental NGOs
ADVERTISEMENT The European People's Party (EPP) group's campaign to block EU financial support for non-profit environmental groups has taken a blow after a trio of conservative lawmakers broke ranks and voted down a motion to censure the European Commission over its use of public funds. The motion was jointly tabled by Dutch lawmaker Sander Smit of the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), who sits with the EPP in the European Parliament, and the eurosceptic ECR group member Pietro Fiocchi, of Italian premier Giorgia Meloni's populist Fratelli d'Italia party. It asserted that the EU executive 'failed to provide adequate safeguards to uphold the institutional balance in the Union by allowing the targeted lobbying of Members of the European Parliament on instruction of the Commission'. The environment committee rejected the objection by 41 votes to 40 on Monday evening (31 March) after three EPP lawmakers – Radan Kanev, Ingeborg Ter Laak and Dimitris Tsiodras – broke ranks and voted against the motion. Another two group members abstained. Otherwise, the vote was split along clear party lines, with the EPP/ECR motion enjoying the unanimous support of far-right and nationalist lawmakers, while the Socialists & Democrats, liberal Renew, Greens and The Left voted against. The committee subsequently rejected by a wider margin a substantively similar motion tabled by French nationalist Mathilde Androuët, a member of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party who sits in the ranks of the Patriots for Europe Group. There were half a dozen EPP lawmakers, including Smit, among the 30 lawmakers who supported Androuët's motion. ' Vaudeville' In another twist, Smit blamed the EU executive for the debacle, accusing it of reneging on an agreement to read out at the committee meeting a statement admitting misuse of LIFE Programme environmental funds in exchange for the EPP dropping its objection. 'We had a deal in which the European Commission would finally admit abuses surrounding the green lobby rule them out for the future, but DG Environment refused to read the entire statement,' the Dutch lawmaker said on social media after the vote. 'Now the fight for EU NGO transparency really begins,' Smit said. The rejection of the two proposals may come as a relief to the European Commission. It is not legally bound to follow the outcome of such votes - in the case of genetically modified crop authorisations, it routinely ignores them - but it may have had to decide whether or not to abide by the wishes of the parliament over a high-profile and controversial issue. The European Environmental Bureau – among the 34 non-profit groups that were awarded LIFE funding last year, and one of eight that received the maximum €700,000 – was scathing, describing the committee meeting as 'low-level vaudeville' that was 'as absurd as the objection it debated'. 'The Commission needs to clearly stand up against this disinformation campaign and the fabricated scandal behind it,' the group's policy director Faustine Bas-Defossez said, having earlier described the EPP's campaign as a 'political attempt to silence civil society and dismantle democratic oversight'. The EPP's contention is that the European Commission had used the LIFE programme to pay NGOs to lobby MEPs on its behalf – a claim for which it has published no convincing evidence, although it did succeed in pressuring the EU executive to review guidelines on the use of funds. ADVERTISEMENT Related Use of EU funds to lobby MEPs was 'inappropriate', commissioner says In an ironic twist, it became apparent earlier thisyear that one of the key figures behind the push to disallow EU support for civil society groups, Monika Hohlmeier (Germany/EPP), had a lucrative side job in a private company that received €6.5 million from the LIFE Programme in 2022, well in excess of the €700,000 cap on operating grants to individual NGOs. Opponents see efforts of the EPP and it's right-wing allies as a populist campaign to silence a source of consistent and vocal criticism of their lawmakers' stance on environmental issues. Tiemo Wölken, the Socialists & Democrats environment policy coordinator said the vote was just the latest move in a 'reckless political campaign by the EPP and their far right allies to gag civil society'. 'The objections tabled today by the EPP and the far right in the ENVI committee clearly show their willingness to follow Donald Trump's dangerous footsteps in undermining democracy by weakening civil society,' Wölken said. ADVERTISEMENT Of the LIFE Programme's €771m annual budget, approximately €15m is allocated to NGOs.
