The working group created to investigate alleged misconduct between the European Commission and environmental NGOs opened its first session this week, and it was a turbulent start. While conservative MEPs maintained that NGOs receiving EU funds may have used them to lobby the Commission, Parliament, or other institutions, representatives of centre/left factions left the meeting. Commission has repeatedly rejected all allegations.
The European Parliament’s Scrutiny Working Group on NGO Financing (SWG) was established earlier this year and is now operational, with a mandate stretching into 2026.
Ahead of the first meeting, SWG chair Dirk Gotink (EPP/NLD) said he had reviewed roughly one hundred contracts between the Commission and NGOs. These were mostly climate-focused organisations receiving funds through the EU’s LIFE programme. He stated that internal screening so far had “confirmed existing concerns,” suggesting an “undeniably normalised way of working” in which Commission-funded NGOs later lobby the institutions on files linked to their grants.
MEP Gotink had intended to question key figures from the previous Commission at the group’s first session. However, former Commissioner and Green Deal architect Frans Timmermans did not respond to the invitation, while former Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius declined to attend.
You might be interested
’Unnecessary working group’
Centre, left, and liberal MEPs had long expressed hesitation about attending and had opposed the creation of the working group in the first place, arguing that Parliament already has tools to scrutinise NGOs.
To nonetheless engage, they wanted the SWG to broaden its focus beyond environmental NGOs to include all recipients of EU funding, including industry and corporate beneficiaries. They also demanded equal access to documents for all political groups and the involvement of the European Court of Auditors to ensure neutral verification.
However, they did not believe these conditions to be met. The parties therefore viewed the process as one in which Parliament was scrutinising NGOs with an assumed presumption of guilt, rather than conducting impartial oversight.
The Scrutiny Working Group on NGO Financing is unnecessary and biased from the start. It is a political theatre designed to undermine NGOs’ credibility and legitimacy. – Coalition of climate NGOs
Environmental NGOs had issued similar warnings in advance of the hearing. “This working group is unnecessary and infringes on existing procedures. It is biased from the start—a political theatre designed to undermine NGOs’ credibility and legitimacy,” a coalition of climate NGOs, including World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said in a joint statement.
“The group’s proponents, notably conservative and right-wing MEPs, have repeatedly shown hostility towards civil society and have consistently voted against stronger EU-level transparency rules. As such, the work of this group will only serve to further institutionalise attacks on NGOs and amplify disinformation,” the statement reads.
Discrediting civil society?
During the meeting, Commission officials, including the heads of the climate and environment directorates general, reiterated that no contract requires NGOs to lobby institutions at the Commission’s direction and that ambiguous wording does not equal collusion.
Minutes into the session of the group, several Green, S&D and Renew MEPs walked out, holding a press conference in parallel to the official meeting, which had been announced at the last moment. They accused the EPP, ECR, and ID groups of a witch hunt rather than an inquiry. In a statement, S&D said:
“The EPP group joined forces with the far-right in another shameful situational alliance to discredit NGOs and the way they get funds from the EU budget. The working group elevates suspicion to an operating principle and uses Parliament’s legitimacy to cast doubt on organisations that have been core partners in shaping environmental, social, and human rights law. We refuse to participate in silencing and discrediting civil society organisations—and we are happy other pro-European forces joined us in protest.”
The behaviour of the Greens, Renew, and the Socialists during the first meeting was nothing but a pointless political show. – MEP Tomáš Zdechovský (EPP/CZE)
MEP Tomáš Zdechovský (EPP/CZE) instead accused the left/centre factions of creating political theatre: “The behaviour of the Greens, Renew, and the Socialists during the first meeting was nothing but a pointless political show. They clearly don’t want real transparency. I will continue to push for clear, accountable, and transparent use of public money.”
