Brussels 26.03.2025 Today the report on the European Commission instrumentalizing the powers of the NGO has been presented in the European Parliament. The increasing use of its budgetary powers to promote the European Commission political agenda under the guise of advancing ‘EU values’ has been exposed. It reveals how the EU leverages programmes to fund non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and think tanks, many of which are explicitly aligned with the Commission’s vision of deeper integration towards the United States of Europe.

During the hearing professor Frank FUREDI, the Executive Director of the MCC thinktank, expressed his grave concern about the mission of the Commission-sponsored NGOs masked as democratic institutions, but in reality acting as political lobbyists, promoting the institutions political agenda generously distributing the European tax-payers money without his consent.

While the MEP Elisabeth DIERINGER said the role of Commission-sponsored NGOs in the political process remains controversial, indicating that there is an exaggerated share of influence, lacking transparency, and accountability. The NGOs in Austria, and Germany represent the powerful agents of the EU institutions, but not the grass-root political activists as one might think.

Apparently this ‘propaganda by proxy’ is fundamentally undemocratic. In effect, many EU citizens who are opposed to ‘more Europe’ under the EU Commission unelected powers do not see the institutions as the answer to every problem. However involuntarily are funding the promotion of greater federalism.

More conservative voters and countries, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, are facing EU-funded promotion of liberal-progressive values they do not share. Elected national governments are coming under intense attacks from groups funded by Brussels.

The report concludes that the EU’s use of NGOs as instruments of political advocacy reflects a broader trend of anti-democratic governance.