Patriots Fight for the Disclosure of EU Contracts on Supporting Activist Organizations

The Patriots of Europe political group in the European Parliament will take legal action to force Brussels to publish EU contracts on the support of activist organizations, Fidesz MEP Csaba Dömötör said in Strasbourg on Thursday.

Speaking to Hungarian journalists during a break in the European Parliament’s plenary session, Csaba Dömötör stated that more and more is known about the European Parliament and the European Commission funding hundreds of activist groups across Europe. These are activist groups that represent liberal Brussels politics in every country and do not represent the will of the electorate, but that of a narrow elite, he said.

He emphasized that the scandal linked to former European Commission executive vice-president Frans Timmermans, the EU commissioner responsible for the European Green Deal who resigned, also revealed that the organizations receiving funding were also forced to organize protests against dissenting decision-makers or governments. Dömötör pointed out that the system is similar to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funding system, but the operation is carried out in Brussels through several programs.

️ | @domotor_cs: “Brussels secretly funded NGOs to push its agenda – even organizing protests. Taxpayers deserve transparency. We’re demanding the truth. Stay tuned!” pic.twitter.com/1FbWpEGFf9

— Patriots for Europe (@PatriotsEP) February 13, 2025

The Fidesz MEP said the European Parliament was also involved in this operation. For example, as it turned out, in the run-up to the European Parliament elections last June, the EP distributed the equivalent of 53 billion forints (131.4 million euros) to liberal media across Europe. All this in a non-transparent way, he noted. Citing a Hungarian example, Dömötör recalled that the Hungarian Helsinki Committee received funding from eight different programs in 2023 alone, amounting to hundreds of millions of euros.

We will enforce the disclosure of contracts by means of public interest requests,” emphasized Dömötör, adding that not only MEPs, but also citizens of all European Member States have the right to do so.

“We encourage everyone to exercise this right. Let us start a European people’s revolt for transparency. We need to know who was paid and what they asked for in return. We also need to know which activist groups in Hungary are pursuing policies against Hungary’s interests on the basis of foreign orders,” he said.

This is not just a dispute between EU organizations and politicians, he pointed out. He said it was not only because the organizations involved represented policies that fundamentally went against the will of the electorate on issues such as the economy, war, immigration, and the protection of children. Their policies also threaten the livelihoods of Hungarian families, he argued.

Dömötör noted that in Hungary, public institutions constantly and regularly publish what contracts they conclude and for how much.  In contrast, in Brussels, it is “confusing and opaque.” “It is time to get a clear picture here too, and to enforce transparency even for those who constantly call others to account,” the Fidesz MEP concluded.

Via MTI, Featured photo via Pixabay