Brussels is inching closer to approving a controversial proposal that would force all member states to set up so-called “foreign influence registers” to track lobbying from third countries—including all foreign funding received by NGOs, think tanks, and lobby organizations—in order to protect the EU from undue political and financial influence from abroad.
The legislation was submitted by the Commission back in 2023, mainly in response to the Qatargate scandal, in which several MEPs—mostly from the social democrat S&D group—were implicated for accepting bribes from the Gulf country in exchange for advancing its foreign policy and trade interests.
As expected, the left-wing parties are not happy with the proposal, accusing the EPP of once again joining the “far-right” to advance an “anti-civil society” law that would allow member states to criminalize NGOs.
According to the Commission’s initial text, all foreign-funded organizations would have to report to a national registry in the member states where they are active, and their information—including the funds they receive from abroad to carry out specific tasks—would be publicly available for at least 4 years. Member states would then be given freedom to decide on the appropriate criminal sanctions.
The current push in the Parliament is driven by the ‘center-right’ EPP group, which would rely on the support of the conservative groups—PfE, ECR, and ESN—, as well as part of the liberal Renew, to get it passed.
“It looks like the EPP is turning to the far-right for support on an anti-civil society proposal,” S&D’s shadow rapporteur Alex Agius Saliba commented, threatening that if it goes ahead without the support of the Left would undermine the “pro-democratic” Ursula coalition.
The S&D, Greens, and The Left reject the proposal, arguing that it could be used to attack any NGOs and not just entities that engage in political lobbying on behalf of governments—although as we saw in the case of the USAID scandal, the line between the two is often non-existent.
The same argument was made by over two hundred Western NGOs—such as Transparency International, Amnesty International, Open Society Foundations, as well as dozens of pro-LGBT or migrant advocacies—which have been protesting the wider ‘Defence of Democracy’ package for years, despite its explicit goal being to prevent Russian and Chinese interference, as the EU’s own ‘foreign agents’ law.
“I’d like to say again: this directive is not about the NGOs,” rapporteur Adina Vălean (EPP) tried to reassure her colleagues during a hearing in the Parliament on Wednesday, June 23rd. “It applies only to organizations—public, private, or non-profit—if they are paid to conduct structured lobbying on behalf of a third country. Most NGOs are not service-providers and do not fall under this category.”
The left-wing parties, however, are not convinced. “It’s not a good look for EU legislation to be compared to the [U.S.’] Foreign Agents Registration Act,” Agius Saliba said. Member states should not be allowed to weaponize the law against civil society by criminalizing foreign-funded NGOs, the lawmaker argued, saying that the law carries the risk of any organization’s activity being classified as ‘political.’
The Renew and the Greens expressed the same views during the debate, with one MEP from the latter, Alexandra Geese, bluntly stating that “we don’t need an anti-Soros law.”
Nearly all MEPs referenced Hungary, which is under heavy attack from Brussels for a very similar law of its own, ironically enough.
Even though it hasn’t even been adopted yet, and has been delayed by months to hold a proper public consultation on the details, the Commission has already threatened the country with another infringement procedure, complete with freezing more EU funds or even stripping the country of its voting rights in the Council.
