The European Commission admits it has used EU funds that were supposed to "fight climate change" for financing left-wing NGOs and climate organizations with the aim of silencing the voices of European conservatives in a secretive influence operation.
The funds came from the LIFE Program, which is supposed to fund environmental initiatives and has had a total budget of EUR 9 billion since 2014.
The LIFE program is a funding instrument dedicated to environmental, nature conservation, and climate action projects but some of the funds were instead used to attack conservative and eurosceptic voices according to the Austrian newspaper eXXpress.
According to internal documents, the targeted campaigns were designed in cooperation between EU agencies and climate NGOs, including planning which critics would be targeted.
According to the European Commission, changes are now to be introduced to the LIFE program to prevent future excesses.
Guidelines banning subsidized lobbying by EU institutions were already introduced in autumn 2024 - but it is only now that the abuses are being publicly confirmed.
Only a third of organizations and NGOs that received money from the LIFE Program openly disclose their income and how the funds are used, which has led to criticism of lack of transparency.
The former EU Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans orchestrated the secret contracts with environmental NGOs.
These contracts reportedly included detailed lobbying plans specifying targets and goals. It means that the European Commission provided not just funding but also strategic direction on whom to oppose in a coordinated effort to attack political opponents of the European Commission's climate agenda.
NGOs were instructed to focus on critics of the Green Deal, such as conservative MEPs, national politicians, or parties (Austria's FPÖ and ÖVP parties are likely among the targets) who resisted stringent climate regulations.
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