On transparency and accountability of non-governmental organisations funded from the EU budget

The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

1.Emphasises the crucial role played by grassroots and community organisations, trade unions, activist groups, human rights defenders and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in promoting and upholding democracy, equality, the rule of law and fundamental rights and in ensuring accountability for state and private actions;

2.Stresses that civil society is a broader category than that of NGOs; notes that while NGOs are, on the one hand, a favoured institutional form of the neoliberal state and therefore rarely truly oppositional, on the other hand many resist instrumentalisation and expose the excesses of state and private interests; stresses, therefore, that they must be protected, including through the provision of adequate funding, including foreign funding; notes that it is short-sighted to treat NGOs as a singular bloc with a singular policy outlook;

3.Remains deeply concerned by threats to and attacks on NGOs in Member States;

4.Calls on the Member States and the EU to improve the legal environment for civil society by ensuring that any measure restricting the right of associations to seek, secure and use resources, including foreign resources, must pursue one of the legitimate aims under Article 11(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights;

5.Recalls that transparency and accountability measures must only serve the purpose of ensuring legitimate public scrutiny; stresses that reporting requirements for NGOs must remain strictly necessary and proportionate to the specific aims pursued;

6.Believes that current EU instruments are likely sufficient for achieving proportionate transparency goals concerning NGO funding;

7.Warns emphatically against the weaponisation of the concept of ‘foreign interference’ and emphasises that this can be and is being used by governments to repress civil society and NGOs.