On Wednesday 12 February, the ECR group called for the establishment of a committee of inquiry into the European Commission’s funding of NGOs linked to the ‘European Green Deal’.
The ECR criticises the Commission for funding these NGOs “to exercise their lobbying efforts towards many stakeholders, including Members of the European Parliament, in order to push them to support [its] proposals related to the European Green Deal”.
The facts were denied by a group of green NGOs (CAN Europe, WWF, the European Environmental Bureau and Transparency International Europe...) at a press conference on Monday 3 February (see EUROPE 13571/7). “Describing my activities does not mean that the Commission is paying me to carry them out”, explained Ariel Brunner, from the NGO Birdlife.
However, according to the ECR, the committee of inquiry will have to “shed full light” on the nature and objectives of the contracts concluded between the Commission and the NGOs: the amount of the funds, how they are used and monitored, the legislative measures that may be the subject of lobbying activities and their intended recipients.
In the European Parliament, committees of inquiry are responsible for examining allegations of infringement or maladministration in the application of EU law. For the request to be accepted, under Rule 198 of the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, a committee of inquiry must be requested by at least a quarter of the Members of the Parliament, i.e. 180 of the 720 MEPs.
The ECR group sent a request for co-signatures to MEPs by e-mail on Wednesday 12 February. The Conservatives make up 80 seats. In favour of a “suspension of the Green Deal” (see EUROPE 13567/14), the Patriots for Europe (PfE) and Europe of Sovereign Nations (ENS) may support the request. With 86 and 26 MEPs respectively, they would be able to achieve the setting up of the committee of inquiry.
Monika Hohlmeier (EPP, German), who was heavily involved in this case, felt that these so-called “lobbying clauses” amounted to “manipulation of legislative procedures” (see EUROPE 13564/15). Will she sign the ECR initiative? Support from the European People’s Party would leave no doubt as to the fate of this initiative.
According to Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA, French), this is a “new attack on European democracy, following repeated calls to cut funding for environmental associations”. The MEP pointed out that “the European far right is not attacking the billions of lobbyists working to destroy” the ‘Green Deal’.
See the ECR group’s request: https://aeur.eu/f/fhd (Original version in French by Florent Servia)