The warnings issued by the EPP, ECR and PfE groups in the European Parliament on the funding of ‘green’ NGOs will have to wait. Initially scheduled for Tuesday 18 March, the vote on two resolutions objecting to the funding of the LIFE programme for the years 2025, 2026 and 2027 has been postponed until 31 March.
Respectively tabled by Sander Smit (EPP, Dutch), Pietro Fiocchi (ECR, Italian) and Mathilde Androuët (PfE, French), the two resolutions follow what the EPP, the conservative right and the far right have called the lobbying “scandal” carried out by environmental NGOs funded by the LIFE framework programme (see EUROPE 13579/6).
The EPP is behind the request for a postponement, having judged the draft resolution by its MEP Sander Smit to be unsatisfactory, according to a source close to the matter.
The two resolutions, which have no binding legal value, are quite similar in calling for greater transparency in contracts between the European Commission and NGOs, and for an end to lobbying of the European institutions by NGOs benefiting from the LIFE programme.
“The Commission’s approach continues to blur the line between governance and advocacy, creating a framework where public funds can be used to exert political pressure on decision-makers”, argued Sander Smit in the European Parliament Environment Committee on Tuesday. In his view, the aim is to preserve the “separation of powers”.
The MEPs behind the resolutions called for no new decisions to be taken before the publication of the European Court of Auditors’ report on the financial management of NGOs.
At the beginning of February, environmental organisations explained their position and denied that the Commission had interfered in their lobbying activities (see EUROPE 13571/7).
See the resolution by Sander Smit and Pietro Fiocchi: https://aeur.eu/f/g01
See Mathilde Androüet's resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/g00 (Original version in French by Florent Servia)