Conservatives and right-wing extremists have launched a witch hunt against NGOs in the European Parliament. With a narrow majority, Members of Parliament from the EPP to the far-right ESN group pushed through a Working Group in the Budgetary Control Committee to uncover alleged irregularities in the financing of NGOs with EU funds. Social Democrats, Liberals, Greens and the Left voted unanimously against it. 

The allegations against NGOs have long been refuted: neither the European Commission nor the European Court of Auditors have found a single irregularity. Where there is no scandal, one is fabricated – at the expense of democracy, civil society and the credibility of the European Parliament. Nevertheless, the new working group will begin its work in October. 

Daniel Freund, Greens/EFA coordinator for the Budgetary Control Committee, comments:

“This is a slap in the face of European civil society. Instead of consistently fighting corruption, the EPP is joining forces with the far right and fabricating scandals where there are none. This causes double damage to democracy: first, civil society is discredited, then Parliament is misused for cheap propaganda.”

“There are real problems that urgently need our attention: the far right in the European Parliament recently embezzled €4.3 million in EU taxpayers’ money. Billions in EU funds continue to disappear into Orbán’s kleptocratic system. Instead of tackling these cases of corruption head-on, conservatives and right-wingers are distracting attention from the real challenges and wasting valuable parliamentary resources.”