05/09/2025
By now it’s official: the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee (CONT) formally approved the creation of a Working Group to scrutinise NGOs’ use of EU funds. This was made possible by the European People’s Party (EPP) joining forces with far-right groups European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), Patriots for Europe, and Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN). Yet, no irregularity was found in the NGO’s use of funds.
The four progressive groups (Socialists & Democrats, Renew, Greens/EFA, and The Left) jointly opposed the measure, denouncing it as a “direct attack and witch hunt on civil society,” noting that: “where there is no scandal, one is being manufactured – at the expense of democracy, civil society, and the credibility of the European Parliament itself”.
The EPP Has Done it Again
The EPP has made a habit of looking to its right whenever it suits its short-term interests:
- Blocking the EU Ethics Body: EPP sided with the far right to stop the creation of a long-overdue European ethics watchdog (The Guardian, AP News).
- Delaying the Anti-Deforestation Law (2024): Together with the far right, EPP tried to postpone the EU’s anti-deforestation rules by a year (Greens/EFA).
- Backing Charlie Weimers (Sweden Democrats, ECR): EPP supported his rise to a key parliamentary role (Euractiv).
- Budget Amendments: Repeatedly, the EPP voted alongside PfE, ECR, and ESN to shape EU budget priorities (EU Matrix).
- Resolution on Venezuela: The EPP joined the far right to recognise Edmundo González as Venezuela’s president (European Parliament).
- Sakharov Prize Decision: The Venezuelan opposition leaders were nominated jointly by the EPP and ECR, with the far-right Patriots rallying behind them after their own candidate, Elon Musk, was excluded (Politico).
- New Genomic Techniques (NGTs): EPP secured a majority with Renew, ECR, and ID to push through the proposal (EP News).
- Nature Restoration Act: EPP leadership tried to sink the law, aligning with ECR and ID (Politico).
- Agenda 2030 Financing Report: The EPP sided with far-right groups against Europe’s commitments to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (S&D Group).
- ECON Committee report on small business: the Patriots for Europe celebrated majority support for a report on small business, framing it as proof that the long-standing refusal of mainstream parties to collaborate with the far right is over and the end of the cordon sanitaire. (Patriots)
- Forest health data collection law: MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) and far-right groups once again joined forces in the plenary on 21/10/25 to vote down the EU’s proposed law on forest monitoring, calling on the Commission to withdraw the proposal entirely. (Euractiv)
A Tactical Alliance of Convenience
This long list proves what we have feared since the early days of the new EU political cycle: the EPP is not simply flirting with the far right – it has institutionalised a tactical alliance of convenience. Whenever numbers are tight, it turns rightwards, normalising extremist positions and undermining Europe’s democratic core.
As The Good Lobby’s how-to guide To Engage or Not to Engage with the Far Right? shows, civil society today faces a radically new political landscape. With the far right now holding over a quarter of seats in the European Parliament, the EPP acts as kingmaker. Its repeated decision to side with illiberal forces is not neutral pragmatism – it is the slow dismantling of the cordon sanitaire, once a cornerstone of European democracy.
These alliances may deliver short-term parliamentary wins. But the long-term price is immense: erosion of democratic safeguards, weakened climate ambition, compromised transparency, and a dangerous legitimisation of forces that thrive on division and exclusion.
Civil society is not the problem. Civil society is the safeguard of democracy.