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This report explores the European Commission’s increasing use of its budgetary powers to promote its political agenda under the guise of advancing ‘EU values’. It reveals how the EU leverages pro grammes to fund non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and think tanks, many of which are explicitly aligned with the Commission’s vision of deeper European integration.
This ‘propaganda by proxy’ is fundamentally undemocratic. In effect, many EU citizens who are opposed to ‘more Europe’ as the answer to every problem are funding the promotion of greater federalism. More conservative voters and countries, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, are facing EU- funded promotion of liberal-progressive values they do not share. Elected national governments are coming under attack from groups funded by Brussels.
The report concludes that the EU’s use of NGOs as instruments of political advocacy reflects a broader trend of anti-democratic governance.
About the author
Thomas Fazi is an independent researcher, writer and journalist based in Rome. He is the author of several books, including: The Battle for Europe: How an Elite Hijacked a Continent – and How We Can Take It Back (Pluto Press, 2014); Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World (co-authored with Bill Mitchell; Pluto Press, 2017); and The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left (co-authored with Toby Green; Hurst, 2023). He is a columnist for UnHerd and Compact.
