The European Commission is reevaluating funding regulations, according to a leaked document obtained by Euronews, as NGOs caution that they require public backing to serve as a check on influential industrial lobbying. Amid concerns about a crackdown on funding for advocacy activity, environmental and climate campaign groups in Brussels have urged the European Commission to refrain from reducing operational payments through its €5.4 billion LIFE Program. The amount of money allocated for NGOs’ daily operations is just over €15 million annually, even though the LIFE budget for 2021–2027 already accounts for just 0.3% of EU spending when post–COVID recovery monies are included.
How are green groups affected by funding cuts?
On December 5, some 30 green organizations signed a letter to President Ursula von der Leyen and other top officials of the Commission, stating that
“a thriving democracy requires infrastructure and resources that allow citizens’ voices to reach decision-makers.”
“European citizens and their civil society organizations (CSOs) and wider non-governmental organizations (NGOs) frequently lack adequate resources to be present in public dialogues at the European level, in contrast to resource-rich actors like foreign governments, multinational corporations, and business associations.”
they write. Since von der Leyen’s political family, the center-right European People’s Party, has already been successful in weakening several strands of “Green Deal” legislation with support from parties further to the right, the civil society groups are worried that their funding may be subject to a growing backlash against environmental policy.
Balancing environmental goals with economic pressures
MEPs raise “serious concerns” about the Commission “indirectly lobbying the Parliament through third parties” by paying NGOs, according to written questions from the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee obtained by Euronews ahead of a hearing with budget commissioner Piotr Serafin on Monday, December 9. The EU executive took these worries “very seriously,” Serafin said, and this year it provided internal instructions to its departments that clarified “which activities should not be mandated as a requirement or condition for Union financing.” According to media reports last month, a number of NGOs got letters outlining specific prohibitions on using EU funds for specific kinds of advocacy and lobbying activities. “The entities receiving funding under such grants remain fully and solely responsible for their own views, which might not represent the Commission’s views,” Serafin writes in his response, rejecting the idea of indirect lobbying. According to Serafin, the European Court of Auditors’ special report on union funding to NGOs was anticipated by the EU executive in the first half of 2025.
The role of green groups in EU environmental policy
The NGOs, which include the European Environmental Bureau, Friends of the Earth Europe, and Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, emphasize in their open letter that the LIFE Program’s legislation explicitly stipulates that the fund should “support the development, implementation, monitoring, and enforcement of relevant Union legislation and policy on the environment.” The newly appointed commissioner did, however, write in his response to MEPs that certain agreements on “specifically detailed activities directed at EU institutions, even if not breaching the legal framework, entail a reputational risk.” The aforementioned three organizations, as well as Transport & Environment, the Health and Environment Alliance, Oceana, the Renewables Grid Initiative, Wetlands International Europe, and the Carbon Disclosure Project, were each given a maximum operational grant of €700,000.
Alternative funding models for green groups
Following a Tuesday night agreement between the European Parliament and national governments, the EU Deforestation Regulation will not go into effect until the end of 2025, giving businesses an additional year before they must certify their products are not connected to forest clearance further up the supply chain. Just two months after the European Commission gave in to pressure from business lobbies, trading partners, and right-wing political groupings in Brussels by failing to publish guidance on how to execute the law, the MEPs and EU Council representatives reached a backroom deal. Ultimately, the right-wing was forced to accept a commitment from the Commission to complete the online information system and country risk benchmarking no later than six months before to the regulation’s implementation, along with an update to the Q&A materials and guidelines. As part of a comprehensive review that is scheduled for mid-2028, the EU executive will also investigate the prospect of lowering the administrative burden for nations who have shown good forest management. Green organizations have fiercely resented the postponement of a crucial green deal agenda item in the first European Commission of President Ursula von der Leyen.
