EU-funded NGOs are behind attempts to rally the European Parliament against the so-called “far-right”, it has been revealed.
A Brussels Signal investigation has uncovered evidence that advertising campaigns asking centrist and left-wing politicians to fight against hard-right political groups have the backing of state-funded organisations.
In one ad campaign run in Politico’s Brussels Playbook several times in June, an open letter was promoted that attacked the Sweden Democrats (SD), Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), labelling all three as “far-right”.
It went on to order new MEPs arriving in Brussels for the first time to refuse to work with these politicians.
Other adverts run as part of the campaign included cartoon versions of various EU leaders being manipulated by Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, RN parliamentary leader Marine Le Pen, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At the centre of the campaign is the NGO Full Beam Media CLG, which is the company listed by Politico as being the main player behind the advertisement.
The firm has a barebones website that explains little of its mission, with the homepage describing it as an “independent campaigning organisation relying on charitable funding”.
Attempts by Brussels Signal to contact Full Beam Media were unsuccessful, with the email listed in the advertisement throwing up an error message.
Another email, procured through Ireland’s Companies Registration Office (CRO) was then contacted, though Brussels Signal has yet to receive a response to that either.
According to other Irish government documents obtained through the CRO, Full Beam Media CLG is based at an address in south Dublin, and has two directors — one Irish national, and one US national with an address in Berlin.
The Irish national is also listed as the managing director of an Irish firm specialising in company formations, with Full Beam Media’s official address being the same as this company’s.
The second director, Ivan Cheung, serves as the “Network Director Digital Strategy” for the Brussels-based green organisation, the Global Strategic Communications Council (GSCC).
GSCC, and its parent organisation, the Meliore Foundation, are a major player in the Brussels bubble when it comes to green politics, with the CEO of both companies, Tom Brookes, being listed by Politico as number 4 in its 2023 Power 40 list — his company being famous for helping Greta Thunberg with her communications strategy.
Publicly available metadata from the advertisement uncovered by Brussels Signal also indicates GSCC’s involvement, with the open letter being hosted on a Google Drive that lists a GSCC email as being its original owner.
The involvement of GSCC, or the Meliore Foundation, is not labelled in the advertisements, nor within the text of the open letter to MEPs seemingly owned by one of its email addresses.
Accounts detailing the income of the Irish NGO are not yet publicly available, as the company is less than a year old.
The European Commission has given third-party NGOs the power to police the internet under the Digital Services Act. So-called “trusted flaggers” will be allowed to patrol the web in a move likely to cause concern. https://t.co/P8YIzEkKbB
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 11, 2024
A number of the NGOs behind a recent advertising campaign castigating the “far-right” are recipients of public funding from state and superstate bodies.
Two are listed by the EU transparency index as being on the receiving end of EU funds.
The Good Lobby — an NGO which aims to “shift public policies through a combination of strategic advocacy advice, training and unconventional alliances” — received over €67,000 in public funds from the bloc as part of the ‘Phoenix Horizon’ project it is included in.
Friends of the Earth Europe meanwhile say that 30 per cent of their annual income in 2022 — the equivalent of over €1 million — came from the European Union, while a further 15 per cent came from other governments or institutions.
This includes the German and Dutch governments, the latter of which the PVV now leads.
A third organisation — Defend Democracy — is listed as receiving substantial funding from NATO and the United States.
According to the EU transparency register, the NGO had a “total budget” in 2022 of €38,427 in 2022, with €22,700 listed as coming from the U.S. Mission to the EU, while another 15,000 was reportedly provided by NATO.
Another document shows that the NGO was provided with €22,700 in 2023, over half of its listed “total budget” of €34,952 for the year.
In a statement to Brussels Signal, the US mission confirmed it had been providing funds to Defend Democracy.
“The U.S. government, through its missions and embassies around the world, funds civil society engagement, through projects and programs, on a host of topics,” it said.
“Defend Democracy is one such civil society organization that receives project-based funding through the U.S. Mission to the European Union’s small grants program to advance transatlantic ties among European audiences.”
The body went on to insist that the “U.S. government supports freedom of expression, rule of law, and human rights”.
As of writing, it is unclear how the advertisement campaign was organised.
While the majority of the listed organisations failed to respond to Brussels Signal‘s requests for comment, Polish anti-racism group the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association did.
According to the group, it had nothing to do with arranging the advert. “Our organisation did not pay anything for this advertisement,” the group’s Rafal Pankowski said. “We were asked to sign the letter and we agreed because we support its message. All the other aspects of its distribution, including the Politico advert, were taken care of by other organisations.”
Further attempts to question the group received no response.
Meanwhile, Politico denied that they had any knowledge of the GSCC Network’s apparent involvement at the time the advertisements were ran.
“The advertisement was provided by and funded by Full Beam Media,” a spokesman for the publication told Brussels Signal. “At the time of the publishing of the advertisement, Politico had no knowledge of any connection between Full Beam Media and the GSCC network,” they added.
Brussels Signal has also approached each of the organisations listed in the letter for comment, along with Ivan Cheung of Full Beam Media, NATO, the GSCC, the PVV and the SD for comment.
The European Parliament meanwhile said that it “cannot comment on the communication of civil society organisations and non-for-profit organisations”.
The European Union has again been accused of handing cash to an NGO linked to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. https://t.co/MAeK9QWHky
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 29, 2023
Full Beam Media is not the only NGO with links to government institutions attacking European populists.
Another campaign reported on by Politico was run by the European Movement International.
The campaign referred to in the publication’s newsletter accused Le Pen, Wilders and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of spreading “hate, fear and division”. The campaign was promoted via Google Advertisements in late June, as confirmed by the US multinational’s ads transparency centre.
Other physical advertisements were also reportedly planned for physical locations within Brussels, some of which appeared to imply that Europe’s populist leaders could be “traitors” who associate with Putin.
According to the EU transparency register, the European Movement International has a total yearly budget of just under €1.3 million.
Of this, €1,076,000 of its 2023 budget came from EU grants, while an overall €1,288,000 is expected to be provided to the organisation from similar grants in 2024.
Attempts by Brussels Signal to contact the European Movement International for further information have so far not been successful.
Anti-corruption NGO calls for EP ban on MEPs’ side hustleshttps://t.co/04rHgQ4z3N
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) May 6, 2024
Speaking to Brussels Signal, newly-elected AfD MEP Tomasz Froelich hit out at left-wing organisations who receive foreign money while accusing the Right of being controlled from abroad.
“The left-liberals always accuse the democratic Right of what they themselves constantly do: they do not respect democratic election results and curtail our parliamentary rights,” he said.
“Without having any proof, they accuse us of being controlled by foreign hegemonic powers, while they themselves receive incredible sums of money from the US and the EU.
“More and more people are noticing this bigotry, which is why the democratic Right is becoming ever stronger. The safe space of the left-liberals is getting smaller and smaller. They fear us, because they know that we intend to drain the swamp,” he concluded.
We asked the former director of Frontex and National Rally EU election candidate @FabriceLeggeri why he thinks he's being targeted after he was accused by left-wing NGOs of being complicit in crimes against humanity.
This was his response⬇️#CPACHungary2024 pic.twitter.com/AhtwdOrapf
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) April 25, 2024
