Latest news with #MonikaHohlmeier
Euronews
2 days ago
- Politics
- Euronews
European Commission goes on the offensive against NGO accusations
The European commission on Saturday denied German media reports that it had signed 'secret contracts' with environmental NGOs to promote the bloc's climate policy. 'Contrary to media allegations, there are no secret contracts between the European Commission and NGOs,' a commission spokesperson told Euronews. 'The Commission exercises a high degree of transparency when it comes to providing funding to NGOs. The commission's denial comes after German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag claimed that the EU's Executive arm had allegedly secretly paid environmental NGOs up to €700,000 to promote the bloc's climate policy. The paper said it got hold of 'secret contracts' from 2022, which involved well-known NGOs like 'ClientEarth,' and 'Friends of the Earth.' In the Welt Am Sonntag claims, the former allegedly 'received €350,000 'and was supposed to 'entangle German coal-fired power plants in court cases in order to increase the operators' financial and legal risk,' the paper said. The paper also reported that EC officials commissioned the latter to fight against the Mercosur free trade agreement between Europe and South America – 'even though colleagues in their own house were pushing it forward at the same time,' the paper reported. In its statement to Euronews on Saturday, the European Commission underlined that 'NGOs play a crucial role in shaping, monitoring, and enforcing legislation. NGOs also remain fully autonomous and free to establish their own views on all policy matters.' The German report comes at a time when the issue of NGO funding has become an extremely divisive political issue in Brussels. The conservative European People's Party (EPP) has claimed that the Commission instructed NGOs to lobby members of the parliament to further specific policies within the Green Deal, a central political agenda of president Ursula von der Leyen's first term between 2019 and 2024. MEP Monika Hohlmeier (Germany/EPP), told Euronews back in January that her concerns were raised when she examined some 30 funding contracts from 2022 and 2023, as part of the parliament's annual scrutiny of EU budget spending. In January, Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin conceded that some financing from the EU's €5.4 billion environmental programme LIFE may have been inappropriate. 'I have to admit that it was inappropriate for some services in the Commission to enter into agreements that oblige NGOs to lobby members of the European Parliament specifically,' he said. But he also defended the role of NGOs in EU policy making. In April, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) also concluded following a lengthy probe that the Commission's funding of NGOs was 'opaque' and exposed the executive to 'reputational risk.' But the court did not find any breach of EU values from NGOs. To overcome ambiguities, the European Commission issued clear guidance last year to streamline how it provides funding to NGOs. On Saturday, the commission spokesperson told Euronews that EU funding to NGOs was provided 'based on grant agreements, which are complemented by work programmes whose preparation falls under the responsibility of NGOs.' 'As per the guidance, the Commission has instructed its services not to sign off on work programmes if those contain overly specific activities directed at EU institutions or their representatives,' the EC statement added. The institution will take 'further measures,' the spokesperson said, to strengthen transparency and include appropriate safeguards. 'We have been working closely with the European Parliament and the European Court of Auditors to improve this transparency even further. Information on recipients of EU funding, including the names of recipients and amounts, is publicly available on the Commission´s Financial Transparency System website,' the statement said. Argentine President Javier Milei has met with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican on Saturday, where they discussed the importance of urgent efforts towards achieving peace. The Pope and Milei also spoke about bilateral relations, as well as "matters of common interest, such as social-economic progress, the fight against poverty, and the commitment to social cohesion," a statement by the Holy See Press Office noted. After his meeting with the pope, the Argentine President met with the Vatican Secretary of State cardinal Pietro Parolin, accompanied by the Under-Secretary for Relations with States, Reverend Msgr. Mirosław Wachowski. Milei arrived in Rome on Friday, the first stop of his 10-day European tour, where he attended the signing of a natural gas export deal, local media reported. The event was also attended by Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who hosted the Argentine president for a private dinner afterwards. Shortly after his meeting with Pope Leo XIV, Milei departed for Spain, to attend the Madrid Economic Forum. After Spain, the Argentine president will also visit France, and will end his trip in Israel, where he will receive an award in recognition of his support of Israel in a ceremony at the Knesset on 11 June.
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.
