According to an article in Politico, big changes may be afoot in the relationship between the European Commission (EC) and the big NGOs that the EU monolith has long been funding. The EC “has told environmental NGOs that the money they receive from the EU’s green funds pot can no longer be used for advocacy and lobbying work”. If true, and if the extremely angry backlash from green organisations and their media pals doesn’t reverse the decision, this is big news. The EC has been extremely generous with public money over the years, and it would mean the loss of “€5.4 billion of funding between 2021 and 2027” to organisations such as WWF and Friends of the Earth, whose use of the cash, not only to lobby European and British politicians, has advanced their agendas throughout the public sphere.
Politico’s framing of this putative divorce between Big Green and the EU is that it reflects the “anti-green campaign promises from the centre-Right European People’s Party [EPP] during the EU election”. This would seem to mark the EPP as a climate sceptic group, but that would be very far from the truth. The EPP has long been the dominant group in European politics, and politicians from its fold, such as former European Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, and the current EC president, Ursula von der Leyen, have been nothing but so-called ‘climate champions’. However, the EPP has never been able to win a majority of seats, and so has formed a grand coalition with the Socialists and Democrats (S&D). But even this coalition began to fracture in the 2019 European elections, in which the combined seats won by the partners was insufficient to form a majority. European Greens have not been part of any coalition agreement, and despite claims and perceptions to the contrary, rarely perform well in elections. The better explanation for the divorce therefore appears to be that radical environmentalism, as has been advanced by green NGOs, has at long last been identified as a liability.
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What a truly great article. The green blob is like a rotting cabbage hidden at the back of your fridge. You know there’s a reason I for the stink, but it requires investigation to discover it.
Some of us have known this since about 1988 and some even earlier
We can but hope that this is the start of a new era of sanity.
Unfortunately I expect the Civil Society organisations will morph into some different shape that still attracts funding and still powers lobbying. Why would they not try to survive and ride the gravy train?
Think back to the ‘bonfire of the QUANGOs’ in the UK. That never happened.
‘bonfire of the QUANGOs’, that needs to be a Reform policy.
Maybe with Rupert Lowe at the helm, not sure about Farage, he is known to flirt with the establishment.
Start with a zero based approach, none are allowed, and then allow each one to try and justify itself and its value, using a standard methodology. I’d also time limit them – they should in my view be temporary things, that either get dropped, or what they do is of value and a government department picks it up BAU
This is what President Trump proposed, last time around:
It will be bigger cuts this time.
Why?
Because the climate has barely changed at all since 2017!
The Earth’s magnetic field is weakening, which is causing many changes, some good, some not so good
The Aurora, North and South, will occur more often, extend closer to the equator, and stronger, for any solar event.
Navigation for many animals is likely to deteriorate, perhaps even insects and plants could be affected.
Space flight, even ‘flying high’ will need to be restricted.
The reduction in field strength could well be linked to changes in Solar behaviour, and needs to be investigated.
Currently, there is no worrying link with atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
Why?—-Because it is an eco socialist wealth redistribution scam
Green can only go one way ———Collapse. Reality is an impossible enemy to defeat. But in the process they will achieve a lot of what it is really about and that has NOTHING to do with the climate. ——-I am currently reading the Climate Scam by John Chizmadia. It goes into great detail about the attempts to get rid of Trump because he opposes the climate fraud, and all of the legal shenanigans and brown envelope politics that expose this as an eco socialist fraud and a world government coup.
If this is true, it is a potential game-changer. I work with European organisations and I know if you are prepared even to mumur the word ‘climate’, the money comes flowing in. And this, in turn,allows these NGOs to re-enforce the view of so many EU politicians and officials that everything should be subservient to climate. If you stand your ground against this misguided obsession with climate, life is much more difficult. Let’s hope the influx of MEPs who are more climate-sceptic and more Euro-sceptic brings to an and this climate gravy train.
In the end the people will end it, en masse!
“2027” to organisations such as WWF and Friends of the Earth”
what about RSPB…..Their silence over bird choppers could be explained by who funds them.
I did not mind business lobbying government back in the 70s when the unions seemed to be in control. Back then business provided good jobs for working and middle class people. More recently business has become globalised and those jobs are mostly gone. I have to admit that at the time I fell for Thatcher’s deregulation and opening up global markets, but what a disaster it has been. Now multinational businesses want to finish the job and crush us under the green jackboot. To end at least the public funding of fake civil society organisations can only be a good thing, but while these organisations are still well funded by business it will not stop the problem. Somehow they need to be separated from government altogether.
There’s nothing wrong with deregulation, when it needs it. But continuing, until you fall off a cliff, isn’t what the initiators expected.
The EU is undemocratic, that is one of the reasons I voted out!
‘Loss of funding between 2021 and 2027…’ – how does that work, they are funded in arrears?
Yet anything that sceptical is immediately accused of being funded by “big oil”
Shut down all quangos and delete access to government by all NGOs. They are just interest lobby groups.
Person standing for election: ‘This is dreadful! I don’t understand! What’s happening in the world? We’re all doomed! Something must be done!!!!”
NGO: Quite right. This is something …
Elected person: ‘ therefore it must be done’
Great article. A new version of ‘pork barrel politics’ as it used to be called in USA. And the same applies to other non-green lobby groups who feed politicians with ideas they couldn’t think up for themselves.
The abuse of the charity and non profit tax rules is out of control. Oversight government bureaucracies are not up to the regulation required. This abuse has created a whole class of elites who have learned a way to make a comfortable and many times, an executive level income. No need to work like a pleb. The abuse of these rules has become destabilizing to governance and it is mostly driven by the West’s flush treasuries. These lax charity laws and tax revenue needs to stop in order to prevent the destruction of people’s lives to save the West from total decay.
WWF adverts keep claiming climate change is destroying the polar bear but donations will save it. How – by using giant ice cube makers ?
And the number of polar bears keeps going up.