In a new study published by the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, Euro Puppets: The European Commission’s remaking of civil society, Christopher Snowdon shows how European taxpayers’ finance organisations which campaign for EU institutions to be given more money and power. Such institutions are typically charities and the flow of funds in such a circular political dance is typical of corporatist organisations. The EU Commission even admits that its funding for these pseudo charities are designed to “promote policy development”
As the State and corporate bodies become more powerful at the expense of individuals, families and democrats even the word “Charity” no longer has its original meaning. A Charity used to be a non-profit making organisation to whichindividuals would voluntarily give money for good causes.
Today Charities receive money from Governments and get considerable tax and rates reliefs (paid for by other taxpayers and businesses) and they are run like businesses with the profit creamed off by corporate management in their remuneration and company cars, with up to 90% of their funding coming from the State – that is FORCED funding by taxpayers unaware of what they are financing. They are no longer charities (although there are a few exploited genuine volunteers in charity shops paid nothing by the rich corporate management!) and as Christopher Snowdon shows in this excellent paper they have become political puppets of the State which pays them to demand more power for the State – or in this case the European Superstate.
When “Women in Europe for a Common Future” gets 93% of its funding (in 2011) from EU and national government sources and nearly all the rest from corporate bodies (with only .2% from private donations then it is not a charity at all, it is a State run propaganda outfit – except that being nominally “independent” from Government it will carry on its propaganda even under Governments which oppose its world view.
As Mr Snowdon points out the EU’s propaganda purpose is blatant: “The ‘Europe for Citizens’ programme which ‘gives citizens the chance to participate in making Europe more united, to develop a European identity, to foster a sense of ownership of the EU, and to enhance tolerance and mutual understanding’ has a €229 million budget for 2014-20. Nor does the imperialist EU stop its propaganda at its own borders. In 2012/13, its Neighbourhood Civil Society Facility had a €22 million budget to be distributed to groups in Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East
What could real democrats do with Euro 229m? Without a penny of it Mr Snowdon has started what should be a massive backlash against one of the State’s biggest scams. The report finds that:
· With public confidence in the European project waning, the idea of initiating a ‘civil dialogue’ with the public emerged in the mid-1990s as a way of bolstering the EU’s democratic legitimacy.
· Citizens have not been consulted directly, however. Instead they have been ventriloquised through ‘sock puppet’ charities, think tanks and other ‘civil society’ groups which have been hand-picked and financed by the European Commission (EC). These organisations typically lobby for closer European integration, bigger EU budgets and more EU regulation.
· The composition of ‘civil society’ at the EU level is largely dictated by which groups the Commission chooses to fund. There has been a bias towards centre-left organisations, with a particular emphasis on those promoting policies that are unpopular with the public, such as increasing foreign aid, restricting lifestyle freedoms and further centralising power within EU institutions.
· The EC’s favoured civil society organisations are also marked by a homogeneous worldview and similarity of jargon. The literature and websites of these groups suffocate the reader with vague rhetoric about ‘stakeholders’, ‘sustainability’, ‘social justice’, ‘capacity building’, ‘fundamental rights’, ‘diversity’, ‘equity’ and ‘active citizenship’.
· Many of the groups which receive the Commission’s patronage would struggle to exist without statutory funding. For example, Women in Europe for a Common Future received an EC grant of €1,219,213 in 2011, with a further €135,247 coming from national governments. This statutory funding made up 93 per cent of its total income while private donations contributed €2,441 (0.2 per cent) and member contributions just €825 (0.06 per cent).
· There is virtually no funding for organisations which seriously question the Commission’s direction of travel. By contrast, groups that favour closer union and greater centralisation are generously funded. The ‘Europe for Citizens’ programme which ‘gives citizens the chance to participate in making Europe more united, to develop a European identity, to foster a sense of ownership of the EU, and to enhance tolerance and mutual understanding’ has a €229 million budget for 2014-20.
· Substantial EU funds are also used to support organisations that share the Commission’s environmentalist agenda. The Green 10 represent the largest of Europe’s environmental lobby groups, but dozens, if not hundreds, of like-minded ecological organisations also receive EU funding. The Commission freely admits that funds are given to environmental groups ‘to support policy development’. Even the EU Commission itself defines the “Civil Society” it is funding as:
‘Non-State Actors encompass non governmental organisations, grassroots organisations, cooperatives, tradeunions, professional associations, universities, media and independent foundations. Their common feature lies in their independence from the State and the voluntary basis upon which they have come together to act and promote common interests.’
But it has been estimated that the EU gives €1 billion to special interest groups each year. The Commission says, with extreme hypocrisy, of its work:
‘Civil society organisations represent a unique link between citizens and government, helping make the voices of citizens heard and encouraging people’s active participation in the political process.”
Nothing could be further from the truth since the top down, ideological certainty that the European Union and its supranational bureaucratic power to usurp the democratic sovereignty of nation states is taken for granted. Snowdon shows only ideas, individuals and organizations which embrace these “self evident truths” get funding. When repeated rejections of European Treaties or policies or outright rejection of Eurofederalism in opinion polls or of the Euro in the street riots of the Mediterranean countries are plain for all to see the EU answer is (like all fascist organizations) to “re-educate” the people. But in a sense we cannot blame the employees of supranational collectivism who are programmed to carry out the logic of the system which “democratic” national politicians conspired to create. The points (as the Nazis used to say) are set. Only brave democrats can now stop the fascist juggernaut.
This is a first class paper on the detailed methods of this new European tyranny. The road to freedom is to know your enemy better than he knows himself!
http://www.iea.org.uk/publications/research/euro-puppets-the-european-commission%E2%80%99s-remaking-of-civil-society
