World

Commission denies singling out NGOs in green funding row

Published

11 months ago

April 2, 2025

Commission denies singling out NGOs in green funding row

After a vote during a fractious meeting of the European Parliament’s environment committee, the row over the funding of non-governmental organisations in the EU policy bubble is rolling on, with a statement from the EU executive provoking criticism that it was bending to pressure from the political right.

The conservative European People’s Party (EPP) and allies further to the right lost by one vote on Monday evening a motion objecting to the EU executive’s decision on funding NGOs through the LIFE Programme for the period 2025 to 2027.

In a subsequent statement, the Commission noted that funding for NGOs was “explicitly provided for in the LIFE Regulation” and that it remained “fully committed to ensuring a healthy and vibrant civil society”. However, it also stated some work programmes attached to grant agreements “contained specific advocacy actions and undue lobbying activities”.

The EPP seized on the latter statement, with the co-sponsor of the censure motion Sander Smit saying the Commission had “finally admitted” wrongdoing – although Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin did just that in the parliament in January, when he acknowledged use of EU funds to lobby MEPs was inappropriate.

Smit pointed to the EU executive’s fresh commitment to preclude “lobbying that targets specific policies or MEPs” from grant agreements, prevent conflicts of interest and review transparency. “This is good news for EU taxpayers, for the integrity and balance of EU Institutions and for the separation of powers,” he said.

“It is also good news for those parts of civil society organisations that work transparently and fairly,” the Dutch lawmaker added.

The European Environmental Bureau, among the largest green groups operating in Brussels, welcomed the Commission’s acknowledgment of the “essential role” of NGOs, but pointed to “serious questions” the process had raised around “blackmailing and backdoor influencing by some political groups”.

Commission denies ‘singling out’ NGOs

Faustine Bas-Defossez, the group’s policy director, said public funding enabled NGOs to work in the public interest and represent voices that would otherwise go unheard by policy makers. “If that’s considered ‘undue lobbying’, then we must seriously question what those standards mean for the future of democratic accountability in Europe,” she said.

The Socialists & Democrats group, second in size only to the EPP, slammed what it sees as submission to pressure from the right and demanded that environment commissioner Jessika Roswall explain why green groups are being “singled out”.

“This politically motivated move risks legitimising right-wing attacks to silence civil society,” the S&D said on social media. “We won’t accept this.”

Asked by Euronews to respond to this criticism, a spokesperson for the EU executive, Balazs Ujvari, said guidance issued last May applied to all beneficiaries of funding through the LIFE Programme, which has a budget of €5.43 billion for the period 2021-2027, of which NGOs shared about €15 million last year, with individual grants capped at €700,000.

Private companies, local authorities and research foundations also receive LIFE funding, but the issues that prompted the EU executive to take action had arisen in relation to NGOs “according to our own research and assessment”, Ujvari said.

“We don’t want to be seen as obliging…non-governmental organisations to lobby concrete members of the European Parliament,” the Commission official said. “This is the main consideration for us.”

Eurosceptics demand a parliamentary inquiry

If the EPP’s latest statement seemed somewhat conciliatory – they “strongly support the LIFE programme and recognise the very important role of NGOs”, the group’s environment policy coordinator Peter Liese said – the same cannot be said for the co-sponsor of the failed parliamentary motion, the eurosceptic ECR group.

On the morning after the vote, co-chair Nicola Procaccini told reporters in Strasbourg that the ECR wanted to set up a parliamentary committee of inquiry into what they are characterising as a full-blown corruption scandal.

“We have successfully gathered the required number of signatures to initiate the procedure for a formal committee of inquiry about the so-called Timmermans-gate,” Procaccini said, adding that the proposal would be put forward at the next meeting of parliamentary group presidents, who set the parliamentary agenda.

However, it appears far from likely that the initiative will succeed. The ECR and its allies further to the right would need the support of the EPP, so the position of group leader Manfred Weber at the meeting on Thursday morning (3 April) will be decisive.

An official contacted by Euronews said the group had not formally discussed the subject. “However, the EPP generally does not support the multiplication of special parliamentary committees, especially when existing committees, such as CONT, are already fully capable of addressing the issue.”

The official was referring to the parliament’s committee on budgetary control, which is due to adopt on 7 April its report on the discharge of the Commission’s 2023 budget.

Greens co-chair Terry Reintke told Euronews that NGOs play an “essential role in balancing the interests of business in European legislation” and it “goes without saying that EU funds must be spent according to the rules”, but she questioned the ECR’s motives.

“Following the script of Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán, ECR wants to silence NGOs and civil society, and we call on EPP members to stick with the democratic centre,” the German lawmaker said.

The EU Court of Auditors is due to present next week an eagerly awaited report into NGO funding that, although it will not specifically target groups operating primarily in the Brussels policy making bubble, will no doubt shine a light on the EU executive’s monitoring and transparency practices.

Related Topics:Civil society EU Policy European Commission European People's Party Featured public money

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World

A look at some of the contenders to be Iran’s supreme leader after the killing of Khamenei

Published

5 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

A look at some of the contenders to be Iran’s supreme leader after the killing of Khamenei

Iran’s leaders are scrambling to replace Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years before he was killed in the surprise U.S. and Israeli bombardment.

It’s only the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that a new supreme leader is being chosen. Potential candidates range from hard-liners committed to confrontation with the West to reformists who seek diplomatic engagement.

The supreme leader has the final say on all major decisions, including war, peace and the country’s disputed nuclear program.

In the meantime, a provisional governing council composed of President Masoud Pezeshkian, hard-line judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and senior Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi is guiding the country through its biggest crisis in decades. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that a new supreme leader would be chosen early this week.

The supreme leader is appointed by an 88-member panel called the Assembly of Experts, who by law are supposed to quickly name a successor. The panel consists of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected after their candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran’s constitutional watchdog.

Khamenei had major influence over both clerical bodies, making it unlikely the next leader will mark a radical departure.

Here are the top contenders.

Mojtaba Khamenei

The son of Khamenei, a mid-level Shiite cleric, is widely considered a potential successor. He has strong ties to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard but has never held office. His selection could prove awkward, as the Islamic Republic has long criticized hereditary rule and cast itself as a more just alternative.

Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi

Arafi is a member of the provisional government council. The senior Shiite cleric was handpicked by Khamenei to be a member of the Guardian Council in 2019, and three years later he was elected to the Assembly of Experts. He leads a network of seminaries.

Hassan Rouhani

Rouhani, a relative moderate, was president of Iran from 2013 to 2021 and reached the landmark nuclear agreement with the Obama administration that U.S. President Donald Trump scrapped during his first term. Rouhani served on the Assembly of Experts until 2024, when he said he was disqualified from running for reelection. Rouhani criticized it as an infringement on Iranians’ political participation.

Hassan Khomeini

Khomeini is the most prominent grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He is also seen as a relative moderate, but has never held government office. He currently works at his grandfather’s mausoleum in Tehran.

Ayatollah Mohammed Mehdi Mirbagheri

Mirbagheri is a senior cleric popular with hard-liners who serves on the Assembly of Experts.

He was close to the late Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a fellow hard-liner who wrote that Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce “special weapons,” a veiled reference to nuclear arms.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mirbagheri denounced the closure of schools as a “conspiracy.”

He is currently the head of the Islamic Cultural Center in Qom, the main center for Islamic teaching in Iran.

World

US cleared to use British bases for limited strikes on Iranian missile capabilities

Published

6 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

US cleared to use British bases for limited strikes on Iranian missile capabilities

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The U.S. has been cleared to use British bases for limited strikes on Iran’s missile capabilities after Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed off on the plan, and while U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey stated on Sunday Britain had “stepped up alongside the Americans.”

“The only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source, in their storage depots or the launchers which are used to fire the missiles,” Starmer confirmed in a recorded statement to the nation.

“The U.S. has requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose,” he said. “We have taken the decision to accept this request.”

The decision came amid escalation across the Middle East in the wake of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory missile and drone attacks, raising fears of a broader regional conflict.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed off on a plan to use British bases for limited strikes on Iranian missile capabilities. (Kin Cheung / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

On Feb. 28, in the wake of Operation Epic Fury, Starmer confirmed British planes “are in the sky today” across the Middle East “as part of coordinated regional defensive operations to protect our people, our interests and our allies.”

Healey went on to disclose Sunday that two Iranian missiles were fired in the direction of Cyprus, where Britain maintains key sovereign base areas.

The Royal Air Force confirmed that Typhoon jets operating from Qatar as part of the joint U.K.-Qatar Typhoon Squadron successfully intercepted an Iranian drone heading toward Qatar.

About 300 British personnel are stationed at a naval facility in Bahrain, where Iranian missiles and drones struck nearby areas.

“We’re taking down the drones that are menacing either our bases, our people or our allies,” Healey told “Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips” on Sky. “We’ve stepped up alongside the Americans. We’ve stepped up our defensive forces in the Middle East. We’re flying those sorties.”

ISRAEL’S LARGEST EVER MILITARY FLYOVER HAMMERS IRANIAN MILITARY TARGETS

British Defense Secretary John Healey stressed that the U.K. had “no part” in the American-Israeli strikes on Iran. (Peter Nicholls/Pool via Reuters)

Healey also made sure to stress that the U.K. had “no part” in the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and insisted all British actions were defensive. “All our actions are about defending U.K. interests and defending U.K. allies,” he said.

When asked if the U.K. would join the U.S. in offensive action, Healey said, “I’m not going to speculate,” according to Sky News.

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Downing Street also confirmed Feb. 28 that Starmer and President Donald Trump had spoken by phone about the “situation in the Middle East,” the BBC reported.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Downing Street for comment.

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.

World

Pakistan calls troops, orders 3-day curfew as 24 killed in pro-Iran rallies

Published

8 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Pakistan calls troops, orders 3-day curfew as 24 killed in pro-Iran rallies

Army deployed and some areas in northern Gilgit-Baltistan region put under curfew after deadly violence over Khamenei’s killing.

By AFP, Anadolu and The Associated Press

Published On 2 Mar 2026

Pakistan has called in the military and imposed a three-day curfew in some areas following deadly protests over the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint United States-Israeli attack on Saturday.

At least 24 people were killed and dozens injured in clashes between protesters and security forces across the country on Sunday, prompting authorities to tighten security around the US embassy and consulates.