On Monday 9 April, the committee on civil liberties of the European Parliament adopted, by a large majority (25 votes to 5 with no abstentions), a resolution calling for the creation of a European Values Instrument to support civil society organisations active in promoting and protecting fundamental values in the European Union.
Their starting point is as follows: funding possibilities for these organisations operating at local and national levels in the EU are far more limited than direct funding from the EU for those operating in third countries.
To remedy this, MEPs are calling for the creation of a specific financial instrument to be included in the post-2020 EU budget, with a level of financing corresponding at least to the level of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, which currently serves similar objectives beyond European borders.
This instrument, which would be managed by the European Commission, would provide the organisations in question with operating grants, base funding and subsidies for projects and initiatives carried out at local and national level. They consider that emphasis should be laid on reinforcing the ability of the organisations to engage with the general public on issues such as pluralist and participative democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights.
The MEPs also call upon the European Commission to draw up a report every year on the performance of this instrument and to publish the list of organisations and activities that are co-financed.
Although the resolution received strong backing from the political groups, a number of MEPs were more sceptical. Slovakia's Branislav Škripek (ECR) expressed his concerns that an instrument of this kind could boil down to “choosing certain organisations and gagging others”. “We are united in diversity, but there are diversities that are not represented”, he added, in reference to issues such as abortion. His colleague, Marek Jurek (ECR, Poland) considers that centralised funding will still not contribute to pluralism and could end up distorting public opinion.
The director of the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union (FRA), Michael O'Flaherty, who attended to present a report on the challenges faced by these organisations, stressed that “effective protection is unimaginable without a strong civil society” and also highlighted the problem of how they are funded.
In so doing, O'Flaherty welcomed the resolution put to the vote, particularly stressing the need to remedy the current situation, which has made it easier for civil society operations outside the EU to secure funding than for those in it.
The FRA report also lists other challenges that may affect the work of these organisations within the EU, such as the regulatory environment, problems accessing public policymakers, the intimidation meted out to human rights defenders and defamatory discourse seeking to rob them of their legitimacy.
“This is Europe experiencing its own version of a global phenomenon”, Flaherty concluded. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)