On Thursday, May 8th, leaders of the political groups in the EU Parliament were supposed to decide whether to move forward with the national conservative ECR group’s initiative to create an inquiry committee to investigate the so-called ‘Timmermans Gate’—the ongoing scandal involving EU-funded NGOs lobbying for the Green Deal—but the vote was postponed to next month as the mainstream parties need more time discuss the specifics.
According to sources inside the Parliament, the delay was initiated by the center-right EPP, the socialist S&D, and the liberal Renew, who want to use this time to come up with the details of a special working group within the budgetary control (CONT) committee instead of a fully autonomous inquiry committee.
The goal is to investigate allegations made public by Dutch media months ago that, under the leadership of former EU Climate Czar Frans Timmermans, the EU Commission has paid at least €750 million to climate NGOs to lobby lawmakers both in Brussels and in the capitals on behalf of the disastrous Green Deal, casting doubts on the legitimacy of the entire flagship legislative package.
The payments were distributed through the ‘LIFE’ program, which has a budget of €5.4 billion, raising concerns about how much more taxpayer money may have been illegally or unethically distributed to influence EU decision-making against the public interest.
While EPP now claims to be on the conservatives’ side—even though at first, it tried to block any probe into the scandal, and its members also prevented a separate review of pending LIFE payments—the S&D and Renew are not comfortable giving the ECR a ‘win.’ As a compromise, they offered the working group format, which would have more limited powers and a wider mandate, instead of focusing solely on environmental NGOs.
It’s worth noting that this proposal is not the same as the Patriots’ ‘TRAC’ (Transparency and Accountability) committee that managed to collect the required signatures earlier this week. TRAC would look into opaque NGO financing too, but its scope would also include foreign interference, systemic corruption, and the lack of transparency in the EU more generally. A vote on TRAC has not been scheduled yet.
Committees of inquiry are very rare, temporary parliamentary bodies with the power to summon witnesses and propose legislation, created only when there are sufficient reasons to investigate allegations of maladministration within the EU institutions.
This is exactly the argument that the leaders of the parliamentary groups are making regarding the ECR’s initiative as well, with one source indicating that the EPP and S&D are using the “need for further legal analysis” as a pretext to delay any inquiry into the allegations.
