On Tuesday 6 May, MEP Kinga Gál (PfE, Hungarian) confirmed in Strasbourg that the threshold of 180 signatures from elected representatives had been reached to call for a committee of inquiry to be set up in the European Parliament to investigate the funding of lobbying by environmental NGOs from the European Union budget.
According to the Italian Nicola Procaccini, co-chairman of the conservative ECR group behind the initiative (see EUROPE 13613/20), it will be up to the Conference of Presidents of the political groups (CoP) to decide on Thursday 8 May. The position of the Christian Democrat EPP group will be decisive.
“We do not know what will be decided, but it is likely that the EPP will not give its support. It’s a shame... Transparency is never a problem. On the contrary, it improves the work of the European Parliament”, said Mr Procaccini.
Ms Gál also said that her far-right group had obtained a comprehensive list of all NGOs that had received EU funding, amounting to “37,000 contracts” worth a total of €17 billion over the period 2019-2023. She noted that 3,600 of the NGOs concerned were part of the “European bubble” in Brussels, and called for the list to be made public. And to refuse to allow European money to support “political activists” to the detriment of democratically elected governments. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with editorial staff)