The Liberals and Democrat representative in the newly established Scrutiny Working Group on NGOs in the European Parliament, MEP Vlad Vasile-Voiculescu MEP (Uniunea Salvați România, Romania), today walked out of today's first meeting on NGOs after the conservative and far-right members present refused to accommodate reasonable proposals to ensure the group would function in a manner in keeping with liberal democratic principles.
At the start of the meeting, MEP Vasile-Voiculescu addressed the working group's very concerning current working methods and presented the four conditions for liberals to continue participating in the group. These include that all entities that receive EU funding, not only green NGOs, need to be targeted, that former Commissioner Hahn must be invited to ensure impartiality, that access to documents must be given to all groups, and that the European Court of Auditors, and independent body, must be involved in its work. As these conditions were disregarded by the Conservatives and the far right, Renew Europe had no choice but to leave the working group, as did the other pro-EU groups.
“If this working group is truly about transparency, then it must apply the same standards to everyone. Our proposals were simple: equal scrutiny for all organisations receiving EU funds, full access to documents, involvement of the European Court of Auditors, and invitations to all relevant Commissioners. Refusing these conditions is refusing transparency itself. When the process is skewed from the start, participating would only legitimise a witch hunt. It’s a shameful process and everyone should know by now that this is a slippery slope. Walking out was necessary to defend democratic principles, the rule of law, and a fair, impartial scrutiny process worthy of the European Parliament.”
Vlad Vasile-VoiculescuRenew Europe MEP, Romania, Uniunea Salvați România