EPP and the extreme right together again against the Green Deal: green light for EU funding controls for green NGOs

Brussels – The European Commission’s funding of environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to justify the need for the Green Deal: the European Parliament now wants to investigate this and will establish a special working group within the Committee on Budgetary Control. This is the decision taken by the Conference of Presidents, in the name of transparency and to dispel doubts about the behaviour of the EU executive. The working group will consist of 13 of the 30 members of the commission, who will work for six months to present conclusions and recommendations. The initiative is made possible thanks to the all-right political agreement between the Popular (PPP), Conservatives (ECR) and Sovereignists (PfE), who have produced a convergence on an issue that is causing debate.

The ECR had originally called for the establishment of a special parliamentary committee of enquiry, a hypothesis that was rejected but found a form of compromise in the EPP that was eventually supported. Nicola Procaccini (FdI/ECR), president of the Conservatives, is satisfied: “We have collected signatures for a committee of enquiry, which is a stronger body that can go deeper.” However, he argues, “if we cannot have a commission of enquiry, we are in favour of any other instrument.” In short, “better than nothing.” However, the Italian MEP claims authorship of the initiative and political success. “Without our initiative, this would never have seen the light of day. We managed to impose it, despite strong opposition from the left, thanks to the centre-right majority,” which is once again coming to the fore since the beginning of the legislative term, and once again against the Green Deal.

Liberals (Re), Socialists (S&D), Greens and radical leftists (The Left) denounce the ‘witch-hunting‘ climate fuelled by the decision to dedicate the working group exclusively to ecologist NGOs. “We agree with the principle of transparency, but we would like to see the scope of this body broadened,” stresses S&D president Iratxe Garcia Perez. This will not be the case, however. “This is not about transparency, but about silencing checks and balances,” attacks Marie Toussaint (Greens), according to whom we are facing an “offensive directly inspired by the methods of Orbán or Trump: intimidating, discrediting, cutting funding, and even silencing civil society.” On the other hand, the co-president of The Left, Manon Aubry, notes that the groups that set up the new working group are the same ones that ‘reject’ an independent ethics authority to monitor lobbies and control the funds distributed to MPs.