Money for stuffing: The European Commission lobbies environmental interests through NGOs

The anti—corruption non-governmental organization Transparency International (TI) has sent a letter to the board of the Dutch political party New Social Contract (NSC) with a request to remove MEP Dirk Gotink from the investigation aimed at uncovering the gray schemes of the European Commission, the European press writes. It turned out that Brussels lobbied for its own political interests with the help of "green" projects, which have recently gained great power. They even managed to get into the European Parliament and control the decisions of politicians on various issues. Why the corruption scandal broke out with such force, what the United States has to do with it and exactly how European NGOs influence EU policy — in the Izvestia article.

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Transparency International, a non-governmental organization that received more than 130 million euros from the European Commission (EC) from 2014 to 2024, tried to disrupt an investigation into shadow lobbying in EU government structures. This was stated by Dirk Gotink, a member of the European Parliament, who is concurrently heading the audit. "Transparency International and other non-governmental organizations are trying to remove me from the investigation of lobbying contracts in the EU through my party behind my back. An alarming symptom of changing relations," the politician wrote on the social network X.

Photo: TASS/Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez

The scandal itself, centered on Transparency International, is related to cooperation between the EC and green NGOs. Gotink's investigation revealed that several large projects, including the Dutch division of TI, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), Fair Resource Foundation and others, blocked the publication of agreements between the EC and environmental organizations, despite promises to disclose documents. An internal audit of existing contracts showed that in 2024, more than 40 contracts did not comply with the new rules and actually provided political influence under the guise of "expert support."

The scheme was as follows: Brussels financed various "environmental projects" that, acting on its behalf, put pressure on EU deputies and governments on climate issues, thereby lobbying their own interests, including political ones. Non-governmental organizations received funds on the basis of contracts and related work programs, which specify what activities they should carry out for grants. These documents, in turn, are strictly classified.

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"In practice, over the past decade, some climate and environmental NGOs have become influential participants in the EU's policy—making process, which has raised fundamental questions about the union's institutional balance," Gotink said.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Evgeny Pavlov

Earlier, the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag published internal documents of the European Commission, according to which in 2022 the EC concluded many secret contracts with environmental NGOs. According to some reports, millions of euros from the EU budget were used to promote the climate agenda within the union. Special attention was paid to Germany. The activists had many tasks here, for example, conducting various campaigns, filing lawsuits against "harmful" industry and foreign economic initiatives supported by Berlin.

According to the newspaper, in the contracts that the EC concluded with the "green" NGOs, everything was spelled out to the smallest detail: which posts and how many should be published on social networks, how many letters to send, and so on. In addition to specific projects, the activists' duties also included lobbying for decisions in the European Parliament. As an example, the newspaper cited the vote on regulating the use of pesticides and other additives in the EU. NGOs could receive up to 700,000 euros for one such project.

Photo: TASS/Stefan Sauer

In Germany, the recipients of European funds have become organizations known as active critics of the country's industrial and energy policies. For example, the ClientEarth law group, which has been trying to stop the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project through numerous lawsuits since 2018. In 2023, she received 350,000 euros from Brussels to prepare lawsuits against German coal-fired power plants. However, they stated the following goal — to increase "financial and legal pressure" on operators.

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Corruption challenges

Until recently, the Agency for International Development (USAID) was one of the main sponsors of Transparency International. Malek Dudakov, an American political scientist, told Izvestia that the United States, as well as the EU, can lobby their own interests with the help of "incentive financing." First of all, TI is a non—governmental international anti-corruption organization. However, almost all the countries of the European Union, as well as the United States, showed good results in the NGO rating in 2024.

— There is a large network of NGOs in the United States that give money to similar organizations, including Transparency International, the Soros, MacArthur foundations, and so on. They are also partially funded by government funds, the State Department and the European Union. There is an obvious conflict of interest here. It's not for nothing that many European countries are traditionally at the top of this rating," the expert explained.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Sergey Lantyukhov

Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada, shared with Izvestia the opinion that with the advent of Trump, the "green" agenda, through which Democrats could quite freely lobby their interests in politics and conduct money laundering schemes under the guise of foreign aid, faded into the background. Now, according to the expert, they have switched to European organizations, where there is still a place for "worries" about the environmental situation in the EU.

— Today, the environmental agenda can really unite people in the EU. Traditionally, the Greens occupy different positions in different countries, but, for example, they are very strong in Germany. However, if you look at Trump's policy, it becomes clear that the environmental agenda, which has gone down in history, does not bring as much money as he would like. That is why Trumpists consider climate change, air pollution, toxic emissions, and so on to be one big fake," the expert stated.

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Unlimited power

Returning to Dirk Gotink's investigation into lobbying environmental interests at the expense of non-governmental organizations, the politician himself called such actions by the EC "undermining the institutional balance of the EU." The situation is really not the most pleasant: instead of ensuring the truly significant interests of the EU member states and taxpayers, at the expense of which the European Commission sponsors Transparency International, NGOs dependent on Brussels promote its agenda.

Photo: TASS/OLIVIER HOSLET

TI's attempt to oust Gotink indicated that "civilian" structures have recently acquired unlimited power in the EU. Vladimir Vasiliev also noted that they can have a really powerful influence on politics, while at the same time acting as a financial agent, as USAID did at the time.

— This is a kind of sophisticated fraud — in this case, it is almost a state crime, the real theft of funds, because their use is not targeted. This is also why, for example, the Agency for International Development was liquidated," the expert concluded.