End secrecy around NGO financing

The EPP Group insists that not enough is being done to end secrecy around NGO financing. "This is a long-standing scandal that we have been denouncing for a long time. The European Commission must not secretly fund NGOs to lobby the European Parliament or to lobby against its legislative proposals," said Tomáš Zdechovský MEP, the EPP Group's Spokesman on Budgetary Control, after today's vote on the European Commission's Budget Discharge. 

"While NGOs play a vital role in every democracy, they must still be subject to financial oversight. Transparency is not a punishment, it's a matter of trust and a fundamental principle," Zdechovsky highlighted. The EPP Group points out that the European Commission itself has admitted to funding improper lobbying activities by NGOs.

"Today's vote, which acknowledges the European Court of Auditors' (ECA) concerns about the opacity of NGO funding, is just the start of a long marathon. The EPP Group will push for further and stronger action. NGOs which receive public money must be subject to public scrutiny. We want to systematically look into the contracts between the European Commission and NGOs," explained Niclas Herbst MEP, the Parliament’s lead negotiator on the European Commission’s Discharge for 2023. 

“Beyond the issue of NGOs, it's obvious that reforms need to be carried out to better control the spending of the European Commission. Currently, 5.6 per cent of spending is affected by errors. For cohesion policy, this percentage is extremely high: 9.3 per cent! Moreover, the implementation of the RRF struggles with absorption and, most importantly, a lack of transparency. This cannot carry on," concluded Herbst.