Grok/europeanconservative.com
The European Commission’s ideological bunker mentality has prompted resistance in the European Parliament. Following the decision to exclude the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE) from all EU funding, several Members of the European Parliament have begun raising formal questions over the criteria used by Brussels to assess civil society organisations.
The FAFCE case marks an unprecedented step in the Commission’s relationship with organised civil society and has reignited the debate on whether EU funds are being used as a tool of ideological control.
The decision affects FAFCE, an organisation that brings together more than thirty family associations in over twenty countries and that, for almost three decades, has played an active role in the European debate on demography, work-life balance, child protection, and human dignity.
The cut-off is total. FAFCE submitted six different project proposals to key EU programmes such as Erasmus+ and Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV), focused on areas that the Commission itself declares to be priorities: preventing minors’ access to pornography, combating youth loneliness, digital well-being, and the protection of children. All of them were rejected. Not due to proven technical shortcomings or financial problems, but because of ideological assessments included in the evaluation reports drawn up under the supervision of the Commission’s executive agencies.
The most controversial element appears, according to documentation seen by this outlet, in the official response sent by Brussels. It states that FAFCE’s approach “may contravene EU equality provisions” without providing concrete evidence or indicating which specific elements of the projects would breach EU rules. Sources from FAFCE stress that this assertion is presented as a categorical judgment, despite not being accompanied by any legal or factual reasoning.
Along the same lines, evaluators criticised an alleged “limited information on gender disparities in civil society organisations’ participation”, an argument which, according to the federation, served to impose a penalty of up to 30% on the final scores of some projects, making their funding impossible. FAFCE insists that this criticism ignores information already included in the applications and reflects a restrictive and politicised interpretation of equality criteria.
The federation’s leadership believes the issue goes far beyond a technical disagreement. “One month after having applied for six European projects promoting and protecting young people and children, FAFCE was excluded from all funding for alleged violations of equality measures and EU values,” denounces its president, Vincenzo Bassi, in a communication to members and supporters. “As President of FAFCE, I consider this an ideological discrimination,” he adds.
From the federation, they recall that evaluators themselves acknowledge in some cases that “EU values are appropriately integrated” into the proposals, yet still demand additional explanations on how principles such as equality, democracy, and human dignity are “operationalised”. For FAFCE, this type of requirement introduces a political and doctrinal criterion that is difficult to objectify, penalising organisations whose anthropology does not align with the dominant vision in Brussels.
The contrast with the treatment afforded to other NGOs is particularly striking. While the Commission maintains an active policy of financial support for organisations aligned with the dominant gender agenda or for “intercultural dialogue” projects that include engagement with Islamic cultures, Christian-inspired associations are subjected to increasing ideological scrutiny. FAFCE sources openly speak of a double standard that ends up suffocating family and faith-based organisations by excluding them from public funding channels.
The practical consequences of this decision are immediate. Several projects already designed together with partners from different Member States will not be carried out. Moreover, Brussels’ refusal seriously undermines the organisation’s financial stability. “We will not be able to finance the employee who was supposed to coordinate these projects, nor develop key initiatives against youth loneliness or the risks of the digital world,” Bassi warns in his letter. FAFCE estimates that it would need at least €150,000 to maintain its basic activities in 2026 and avoid layoffs and a drastic reduction of its institutional presence in Brussels.
The case has begun to generate concern in the European Parliament. According to various parliamentary sources we have spoken to MEPs from different political groups have contacted the federation to learn about the details of the process and explore possible courses of action. Patriots for Europe MEPs Paolo Borchia (Lega) and Kinga Gál (Fidsz) have already tabled parliamentary questions challenging the evaluation criteria used by the Commission and asking how Brussels intends to address Europe’s demographic winter if it sidelines associations that place the family at the centre of their social action.
Beyond its administrative or legal outcome, the episode sets a precedent. The Commission —which presents itself as the “guardian of the Treaties”— is moving towards an increasingly ideologised interpretation of so-called “European values”, in which the pluralism enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union is subordinated to a single vision. When defending the family or drawing inspiration from Christian social teaching becomes a reason for financial exclusion, access to EU funds ceases to be a neutral instrument and instead functions as a mechanism of ideological control over civil society.
