Dear readers,
Welcome to EU Politics Decoded where Benjamin Fox and Eleonora Vasques bring you a round-up of the latest political news in Europe and beyond every Thursday.
In this edition, we look at how NGOs and civil society groups risk becoming collateral damage from the Qatargate scandal.
Editor’s Take: NGOs – collateral damage from Qatargate?
How many times have we heard the sentence “not all politicians are corrupt”, particularly in the last few weeks? Far too many, especially for a phrase that adds zero to the sum of human knowledge.
However, the European People’s Party (EPP) now appears to be using this kind of simplification to persuade people that Qatargate is the product of corrupted NGOs rather than the lack of rules and their implementation.
“Did the NGO that organised the #Qatargate bribes receive EU funding? The EPP Group has asked for a plenary debate about this. @TheProgressives and other political groups united to hide the corruption ring from the public,” the group wrote on Twitter on Wednesday (1 February).
It is true that Fight Impunity, the organisation chaired by former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, who has agreed to give evidence in exchange for a plea deal, did not sign the Transparency Register. It appears to have been little more than a front for political image-washing. However, such fake NGOs are no reason to attack, defund and shut down civil society.
NGOs and civil society organisations are a vital part of a democratic society.
This kind of strategy fuels the many organisations whose goal is to shut down NGOs.
A case in point is the so-called ‘NGO Monitor’, which focuses its ire primarily on human rights groups that criticise the Israeli government and Palestinian NGOs, whose director Gerald Steinberg welcomed the EPP proposal to call for “better rules for NGOs and freezing of the DROI [human rights] Committee”.
“Europe is waking up and seeing NGO corruption,” Steinberg wrote in the Jerusalem Post on the same day as the EPP published its proposal.
NGO Monitor was at the forefront of the battle to block EU funds for six Palestinian human rights NGOs described by the Israeli government as terrorist organisations.
The EU froze funding while it investigated the matter. However, after almost a year, the EU restarted the flow of the money due to a lack of evidence.
“This is turning into a pathetic, pointless and harmful witch-hunt against NGOs. Discrediting civil society’s contribution to the European Parliament’s precious human rights work only benefits abusers, to the detriment of their victims. The enemy is corruption, not NGOs,” Human Rights Watch Senior EU Advocate Claudio Francavilla told EURACTIV.
In a letter to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, the Human Rights and Democracy Network expressed its concerns that some MEPs want to freeze the work of the Human Rights Subcommittee.
“Halting all human rights activities of the European Parliament while sweepingly calling into question the integrity and contribution of all civil society organisations in EU policy-making would be solely in the interest of perpetrators of human rights abuses, to the detriment of their victims,” the letter stated.
The irony is that Qatargate has demonstrated that, despite not carrying any legislative force, the Parliament’s resolutions on human rights, civil society and press freedom are hugely important to Doha.
The same can be said for Morocco, whose lawmakers voted to suspend relations with the European Parliament last month after MEPs adopted a critical resolution on media freedom in the North African country.
Shutting down that work is precisely what authoritarian states want.
Who’s electioneering?
Rightists battle for the presidency. Former foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides is the hot favourite to top the poll in Sunday’s (5 February) presidential election in Cyprus but is unlikely to win an outright majority, setting the stage for a runoff on 12 February.
The next president is almost certain to be one of three former aides of incumbent right-wing President Nicos Anastasiades who is standing down. Christodoulides is competing against Averof Neophytou, head of the governing right-wing Democratic Rally party, which Christodoulides left to run for the presidency. Diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis, who is backed by the left-wing opposition AKEL, is also battling for a place in the run-off.
Capitals-in-brief
Conservative CDU leads polls as top court approves Berlin election re-run. The conservative CDU is leading the polls with 23% as the traditionally left-leaning capital of Berlin is gearing up for an election re-run on 12 February that the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of Tuesday following 2021’s botched elections.
Hungarian FM says Sweden should act ‘differently’ to join NATO. The Swedish government must act differently if it wants to secure Turkey’s support for its NATO bid, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Tuesday, in reference to the Qur’an burning that took place last weekend.
Spain shows ‘clear signs’ of corruption risk, warns NGO. The level of corruption perception in Spain has worsened for the second year in a row as the country scored 60 out of 100 points in 2022, falling by one point compared to 2021, a report by NGO Transparency International revealed.
Madrid’s bid to return exiled Catalan politicians boosted by EU Court judgement. The grounds on which member states can reject European arrest warrants were limited by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Tuesday in a move that could boost Spanish efforts to return Catalan politicians who fled in the wake of an illegal independence referendum.
Inside the institutions
Vestager warns of fragmentation risks, but expands state aid. On Wednesday (1 February), Margrethe Vestager presented a new framework for state aid that will allow member states to subsidise more companies for longer, while also warning that such subsidies were a threat to the integrity of the single market.
Low expectations for EU-Ukraine Summit. According to a draft Summit communique seen by EURACTIV, the EU will commend Ukraine on its progress on membership-bound reform. However, member states are split on the speed of EU accession of Ukraine.
EU launches its own green industry plan in global subsidy race. EU Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen presented a Green Deal Industrial Plan on Wednesday (1 February) in an effort by the EU to keep up with a worldwide race in subsidy schemes for green industries.
Industry associations ask EU policymakers to pull the brakes on Data Act. In a joint statement published on Wednesday (1 February), 30 trade associations urged the EU Data Act’s co-legislators to avoid ‘a leap into the unknown’ with the new law. The Data Act is a landmark law to regulate how data is accessed, shared and ported. The European Parliament and Council of Ministers are currently formalising their position on the file, with the view of initiating interinstitutional negotiations – better known as trilogues – as early as March.
Fact-checkers call out Commission on anti-child abuse material proposal. The Commission made some false or contradictory statements in promoting the initiative to combat Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), according to researchers at TU Delft, a leading Dutch technical university.
EU ministers relaunch call to improve honey labelling. EU agriculture ministers have reiterated their call on the European Commission to revise legislation on the labelling of honey blends and protect producers and consumers when choosing the honey of their liking.
Socialist Bullmann to take over Parliament’s human rights committee. Veteran socialist MEP Udo Bullmann will become the European Parliament’s chief spokesperson on human rights after his predecessor resigned as part of the fallout from the Qatargate scandal.
What we are reading
- Russia has become an embarrassment to China. Can the United States take advantage? asks Max Boot for the Washington Post.
- Frontex to spend €100m on returning migrants this year, writes Nikolaj Nielsen for the EU Observer.
- Brexit Turns 3. Why Is No One Wearing a Party Hat? questions Mark Landler for The New York Times
The next week in politics
- A very busy week ahead in the Council, all eyes will be on the Special European Council summit on 9-10 February where migration will be the main topic. But first, there will be General Affairs Council on Monday, an informal meeting of competition ministers from Monday to Wednesday, and an EU-Moldova Association Council on Tuesday.
- Committee and Political group meetings will be the main action in the European Parliament next week.
Thanks for reading. If you’d like to contact us for leaks, tips or comments, drop us a line at [email protected] / [email protected] or contact us on Twitter: @EleonorasVasques & @benfox83
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
Source: euractiv.com
