Rightwing forces within the European Parliament have prolonged by one other six months a controversial scrutiny committee investigating NGOs that obtain EU funds.
The choice on Wednesday (13 Could) prompted outrage from different political teams, together with socialists, liberals, greens and leftwing lawmakers, who described it as a “witch hunt.”
The inquiry, led by an alliance between the centre-right European Folks’s Get together (EPP) and the far-right Patriots for Europe (PfE), has up to now did not uncover any wrongdoing.
Most MEPs walked out throughout its first assembly held final November, resulting in a boycott by different political teams.
The inquiry was supposed to provide a report inside its first six months however has but to ship. An EU supply says the rightwing faction is now searching for an extra six months to finish the draft.
Iratxe Garcia, who heads the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), stated on social media on Wednesday that the EPP/far-right-led inquiry “is nothing else than an assault on civil society”.
“Cease this witch-hunt towards NGOs…We strongly reject any prolongation of this dangerous and substanceless marketing campaign,” stated the chief of the liberal group Renew Europe Valérie Hayer on X.
Equally, the co-chair of the inexperienced group Terry Reintke slammed the rightwing alliance and stated that the extension of the mandate of the scrutiny committee is the EPP’s “ideological campaign” towards inexperienced NGOs.
“After six months, there have been no findings,” she stated.
The scrutiny working group (SWG) was fashioned in November 2025.
Dirk Gotink, a Dutch centre-right MEP with the EPP along with Italy’s far-right Patriots for Europe MEP Carlo Fidanza, had been given six months to provide a report on their findings.
Gotnik has brazenly admitted that the inquiry is politically pushed.
