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| MEP’s
anti-NGO letter “sparked great concern” |
16/03/06 |
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A
German MEP has stunned the European NGO sector by suggesting that NGOs in
receipt of EU funds should not campaign against EU policies or take part
in the ongoing debate about globalisation.
In a letter sent to the Financial Times on 11 February Silvana Koch-Mehrin,
a German MEP and vice-president of the European Parliament’s Liberal
Group wrote: “Transparency in the lobbying business is not achieved
so long as the so-called non-governmental organisations do not apply the
very standards to themselves too… Whether it is environmental or social
policy, labour regulations or the single market, the NGO recipients of EU
funds are almost inevitably violently opposed to the EU approach.”
Her comments provoked an angry reaction from the European not-for-profit
sector. “We are deeply concerned by Ms. Kock-Mehrin’s comments,”
said Nolan Quigley, vice-president of CEDAG (the European Council for non-profit
organisations) and EU and international officer at the NCVO. “No politician
should prescribe which issues NGOs should be allowed to lobby on.”
Quigley said the MEP’s comments underlined the need for a Compact-style
agreement to cover the EU, enshrining the rights of NGOs to criticise government
policy irrespective of their financial relationship to that government.
“A memorandum of understanding between European institutions and NGOs
across the EU would lay down principles of correct behaviour on both sides
for mutual benefit, and guarantee the independence of NGOs to lobby,”
he said.
Mr Quigley wrote to Ms Koch-Mehrin on 24 February, taking issue with a number
of the points she raised, in particular the idea that NGOs receiving funding
from the EU should refrain from anti-EU or anti-globalisation campaigning.
“The freedom and right of association is a fundamental principle of
democratic society,” he wrote, “enshrined in many national constitutions…
The logical outcomes of your suggestion would be for the State to dictate
‘legitimate’ NGO activity as we have seen in recent draconian
anti-NGTO laws in Belarus and Russia. This is hardly a way to convince a
sceptical public that their views are listened to.” He went on to
reiterate CEDAG and NCVO’s support for a Compact-style agreement between
NGOs and EU institutions.
He also noted that, far from lacking transparency as Ms Koch-Mehrin had
claimed, many NGOs throughout the EU faced regulatory requirements obliging
them to publish accounts in public.
“We haven’t yet heard from Ms Koch-Mehrin,” said a spokesperson
for the NCVO. “If we haven’t heard back from her in the next
couple of weeks we’ll be very disappointed and will look to follow
it up.”
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