Rightwing MEPs push to freeze €15.6m EU funding for 30 environmental NGOs

Rightwing members of the European Parliament are preparing to freeze €15.6 million in annual operating grants that keep 30 environmental organisations functioning in Brussels. The sum represents 0.006% of the European Commission's yearly budget, but for groups including ClientEarth, BirdLife Europe and Pesticide Action Network Europe it covers between a quarter and 70% of their core funding. A plenary vote on the Commission's budgetary discharge, where the cut would be decided, is expected in May.

What the LIFE programme actually funds

The LIFE programme, the EU's main funding instrument for environment and climate action, runs on a €5.4 billion envelope for the 2021-2027 period. Most of that money goes to on-the-ground projects: nature restoration, circular economy pilots, clean energy demonstrations. A small slice, the €15.6 million now under threat, goes to operating grants for non-governmental organisations that provide technical expertise, monitor implementation and feed data into legislative processes. The Commission publishes the list of recipients annually. Last year it included the European Cyclists Federation, the Health and Environment Alliance, the Institute for European Environmental Policy, Organics International, the Surfrider Foundation, Wetlands International and WWF Central and Eastern Europe.

For the European Environmental Bureau, the largest network of environmental citizens' organisations in Europe, the LIFE grant covers roughly 10% of its budget. Faustine Bas-Defossez, its policy director, said the loss would force a struggle to maintain current operations. Carlotta Besozzi, director of Civil Society Europe, put it more bluntly: several organisations could simply close because alternative funding at this scale does not exist. Corporate lobbying in Brussels, by contrast, was estimated at €1.7 billion in 2023 according to Transparency International EU. The NGO grants were designed partly to counterbalance that asymmetry.

The allegations and the missing evidence

The push to cut funding comes from the European People's Party, the European Conservatives and Reformists group and far-right blocs. Their central claim: the Commission's Directorate-General for Environment has secretly contracted NGOs to lobby MEPs and other EU institutions for more ambitious Green Deal policies. Monika Hohlmeier, vice-chair of the Parliament's budgetary committee, said last month that this would impinge on legislative independence, transparency, avoidance of conflicts of interest, fair and impartial distribution of funds and accountability for taxpayers' money. She demanded the Commission end such methods and repay misused money.

Tomáš Zdechovský, an EPP MEP, said the alleged contracts might date back a decade. He insisted there was no intent to liquidate NGOs, only to enforce transparency. When asked for evidence, he said the EPP's whistleblower sources were under pressure from the Commission or NGOs and could not be disclosed. The Commission has not publicly responded to the specific allegation of secret lobbying contracts. NGOs deny they exist. Ariel Brunner, director of BirdLife Europe, called the charge a slanderous witch-hunt with no bearing in reality. Chris Baker of Wetlands International said his group's LIFE funding is not guided in any way by what DG Environment would like them to do.

Orbán comparisons and democratic backsliding

At a press conference on Monday, Nicholas Aiossa, director of Transparency International EU, accused the EPP of taking a leaf out of Viktor Orbán's book. The Hungarian prime minister's government has systematically restricted foreign-funded NGOs, academic institutions and media outlets, framing them as threats to national sovereignty. Aiossa said there is no indication or evidence that any rules have been broken, yet a committee has requested dozens of contracts from NGOs and civil society actors amounting to thousands of pages, one of the biggest fishing expeditions he has ever seen. The comparison matters because the EPP, until recently, positioned itself as a defender of rule-of-law standards against Orbán's Fidesz party, which left the EPP in 2021 after years of tension.

The defunding push coincides with a broader offensive against the European Green Deal. Since the June 2024 European elections, centre-right and far-right MEPs have pushed to weaken the Nature Restoration Law, delay the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and reopen the 2035 phase-out of combustion-engine cars. The NGOs now targeted are among the most consistent advocates for those policies. Their capacity to scrutinise amendments, submit data and appear at committee hearings would be diminished if the grants disappear. Martin Dermine, director of Pesticide Action Network Europe, said a funding cut would prevent his group from being present in the Brussels arena, though it would not end its work entirely.

Hohlmeier's BayWa connection

Monika Hohlmeier receives €75,000 a year from BayWa AG, a German agricultural trading company. A BayWa subsidiary, BayWa r.e., has received €6.5 million from the LIFE programme. Hohlmeier declined an interview request but has stated elsewhere that there is no conflict of interest: she was not involved in the creation or setup of the LIFE programme, nor in BayWa's decision to apply, nor did she have knowledge of the award until recently. The Parliament's code of conduct requires MEPs to declare outside income and avoid situations where personal financial interests could influence their official duties. The Bureau of the Parliament is responsible for assessing compliance. No formal investigation has been announced.

How the discharge procedure works

The budgetary discharge is the Parliament's annual vote on whether the Commission has correctly implemented the previous year's budget. It is a political exercise as much as a financial one. The Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) drafts a report, the Committee on Budgets (BUDG) gives an opinion, and the plenary votes. A refusal or postponement of discharge is rare, the last time Parliament refused discharge was in 1998, triggering the resignation of the Santer Commission. More commonly, the Parliament attaches conditions or demands. The current CONT chair is Lidia Pereira (EPP, Portugal). The report on the 2023 financial year is expected to reach plenary in May. The NGO funding freeze would likely appear as an amendment or a conditional demand attached to the discharge resolution.