Activities of Charles GOERENS related to 2023/2122(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Transparency and accountability of non-governmental organisations funded from the EU budget (debate)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the transparency and accountability of non-governmental organisations funded from the EU budget
Amendments (10)
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. StressesCommends the important role that NGOs and CSOs working for the promotion and protection of human rights, democracy and the rule of law play an important role in societies around the world; highlights, in this regard, the crucial work of these organisations in collecting public interest information, exploring and proposing new ways of promoting human rights and democracy, informing individuals and groups, especially the most vulnerable, about their rights and standing up for them when those rights are violated, denouncing human and civil rights violations, promoting civic engagement and public participation, countering disinformation and hate speech, holding governments and elected representatives accountable to citizens, and fighting corruption and impunity for human rights abuses;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Highlights the serious risks that people working for human rights NGOs face in their activities around the world, including threats against them and their families, intimidation and all forms of harassment, including through online channels and social media, abusive legal proceedings and prosecution, arbitrary detention, violence, torture, disappearances, killings and executions, that can force them to exile;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Is alarmed by the fact that some governments, whose aim is to shrink civil society space and silence dissenting voices, have adopted legislation based, inter alia, on security, counter-terrorism and the fight against foreign interference, that imposes discriminatory obligations on human rights NGOs and their workers, stigmatises, restricts or bans their activities, including by closing these NGOs, freezing their assets, deterring their donors from contributing funds or depriving them from access to funding;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Subheading 2
Subheading 2
Transparency and accountability of human rights NGOs funded by the EU 2021-2027 external action budget
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Underlines the need to make more transparent and accessible to the public, the available information on the beneficiaries, including NGOs, of EU external action funds dedicated to human rights and democracy support and to the related EU- funded projects which are implemented worldwide; acknowledges the precariousrisky and life threatening conditions faced by some human rights defenders and NGOs in non- EU countries; believes, in this regard, that confidentiality and data protection must be ensured in order not to put them at risk;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Commission to improve the clarity and organisation of information and data available in the Financial Transparency System on the beneficiaries of EU-funded projects to be implemented, in particular, in the field of human rights and democracy support; stresses that the publication of this information should in no terms put at risks the beneficiaries;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Points out that human rights NGOs receiving EU funding must be transparent about the funding received and give visibility to the EU’s support in different ways, and sometimes incompletely, through various communication channels, including official websites; calls for the establishment of harmonised approaches to make EU funding for human rights and democracy support more transparent and visible to the public;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Stresses that the funding by non-EU countries of EU-based legal entities, including human rights NGOs, while also carrying out lobbying or advocacy activities within the EU and aiming to influence EU foreign policymaking, raises questions as to their objectives; denounces the use of organisations sponsored by non- EU country governments (government- organised NGOs (GONGOs)) to spread disinformation and false narratives related, in particular, to human rights issues; highlights that, in the context of recent corruption allegations against some Members and former Members of the European Parliament, an NGO, whose stated purpose was to carry out advocacy activities on human rights, is suspected to have been used as a vector of foreign interference; considers that there is a public interest in knowing the financial sources, including non-EU funding, of the stakeholders active in the fields of lobbying or advocacy;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Welcomes the progress made in the use of the EU Transparency Register and is committed to continuing its work to expand the scope of the Register and strengthen the monitoring of the data it contains; points out that, as a general rule, annual financial data on the sources of funding, including EU grants and domestic and non-EU donations, of registered legal entities are made publicly available under the EU Transparency Register; stresses that, since 12 July 2023, the participation of ‘interest representatives’ as invited active guests at Parliament’s events is conditional on their prior registration in the EU Transparency Register, except if registration is likely to endanger an individual’s life or personal safety or the existence of the NGO or where other compelling reasons require confidentiality;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Recommends that legal entities engaging in lobbying, including NGOs, be required to register in the EU Transparency Register as a condition for applying for EU grants and receiving EU funding as long as it does not put at risks their existence due to the use of that information by authoritarian or illiberal regimes to attack them; calls on the Commission to present proposals to enhance the transparency of interest representation bodies and to ensure that lobbying or advocacy activities, in particular on behalf of non-EU country governments, their budgets and their policy scope are properly disclosed under the EU Transparency Register and that false declarations are subject to sanctions.