On the sidelines of the General Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Tuesday, 21 October, France, Austria, and the Netherlands presented a ‘non-paper’ calling [on the EU] to “ensure European values are respected by entities that receive European funding and [to] strengthen the fight against all forms of hatred, including antisemitism and racism”.
The three Member States reiterate, “The European Union needs to better protect and promote its rights and values [...], including in its funding policy.”
In addition, the EU budget should be implemented in conformity with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and in compliance with Article 2 of the TEU.
Upon arriving at the council meeting, French Minister Delegate for Europe Benjamin Haddad declared, “Not one euro of European public money should go to organisations that espouse values that conflict with those held by the Union. [...] We are therefore asking for commitments, for statements of core values for project owners, and for closer supervision—both upstream and downstream—by the European Commission.”
Among the proposals appear not only [the idea that] beneficiary entities sign a “commitment contract”—which could initially focus on “the funds that are the most exposed to uses that conflict with EU values”, such as Erasmus+ funds and the ‘Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values’ (CERV) Programme—but also [the ideas of] adopting European guidelines to clarify the concept of EU values and imposing obligations on those legally responsible for the funded organisations.
The text also aims to prevent “circumvention strategies”.
The non-paper (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/j2j (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)