Germany, backed by a group of countries including Hungary and Poland, is leading opposition to new EU legislation aimed at shedding light on foreign influence in political campaigns.
The proposed law would create a central register of media, civil society organisations and lobby groups that receive funding from outside the EU.
Berlin and other capitals have rallied behind international NGOs condemning the proposed regime, arguing that it mirrors discriminatory measures imposed by the Russian and Georgian governments on opposition voices in those countries.
The Hungarian government clashed with the European Commission when it set up the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty, which investigates opposition politicians and NGOs that receive foreign funding.
Brussels to increase ‘transparency of foreign funding’
The Commission unveiled a draft law in December to increase the transparency of foreign funding received by NGOs, lobby groups, consultants and others carrying out “interest representation activities” on behalf of non-EU governments.
The bill was proposed in the wake of the ‘Qatargate’ scandal at the European Parliament, in which MEPs were accused of receiving bribes from Qatar and Morocco through a human rights group set up by a former MEP.
At a meeting of EU ambassadors last week, countries including Germany, Poland and Hungary called for the legislation to be changed, while several other member states were reluctant to take the proposal forward at this stage.
EU could face accusations of hypocrisy
A senior EU diplomat told the Financial Times (FT) that the proposal posed a dilemma for the Union. A system that could work well in a liberal democracy, with a government that encourages and values the contribution of civil society, could easily be abused by illiberal democrats/autocrats. We need to figure out how to make such a scenario impossible,” he said.
The diplomat argued that this would leave the EU open to accusations of ‘hypocrisy’, pointing out that governments such as Georgia had been criticised for introducing foreign influence legislation and were discussing something that would be seen in a similar light.
The Commission’s proposal would require organisations to declare which country they work for, what activities they carry out and how much they pay each year. Organisations would also have to keep records of these activities. Those who do not comply could be fined.
Transparency International and other NGOs criticised the inclusion of only foreign government funds and not all state funds, including those of European capitals, arguing that this could lead to “stigmatisation”.
Commission defends law
The Commission argued that the law was necessary because there is currently no central register of foreign state funding, making it difficult to assess which organisations might be fronts for ‘influence operations’ from abroad.
Věra Jourová, the Commission’s vice-president for values and transparency, said: “There is no chance that we will withdraw the law because I believe we need such a law. We want to know more about lobbying contracts that organisations operating in the EU market have with third country administrations. This is about foreign lobbying”.
Some member states, including France and Germany, already have their own registers and are concerned that the quality of these registers would suffer if the EU created a supranational register.
The new legislation is expected to be discussed by EU ministers later this month.
