Parliament to probe EU grants to Shell, Volkswagen and migrant NGOs 

European lawmakers have significantly widened the list of EU grant contracts they want to probe, turning what began as a targeted fight over funding for green NGOs into an open battle between left- and right-wing forces in the European Parliament.

According to a letter addressed on Wednesday to Commissioner for Budget Piotr Serafin, obtained by POLITICO, political groups in the Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control now want to examine 28 Commission grant contracts to a broad range of recipients.

They include contracts with the International Rescue Committee and NGOs working for the inclusion of LGBTQI+ migrants, at the request of center-right and right-wing groups; and with business giants Shell and Volkswagen and trade association BusinessEurope, at the request of left-wing groups. 

The list includes agreements signed between 2019 and 2024 and totaling €58.2 million, according to data retrieved by POLITICO. 

The letter is the latest step in a fight brewing in the budget committee over when the Commission should provide organizations with EU cash.

It began when the center-right European People’s Party’s claimed the Commission had paid NGOs to lobby the Parliament in favor of the Green Deal, through the so-called LIFE funding program. The Commission later revised its contracts with the NGOs concerned.

After the EPP requested that grants awarded to Transparency International and other green NGOs be reviewed, left-wing groups demanded that contracts awarded to businesses be vetted as well. 

Specifically, the MEPs asked to see contracts pertaining to: the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund; the justice program of the Commission’s justice department, DG JUST; the LIFE program; support for information measures relating to the Common Agricultural Policy and contracts managed by the Commission’s agriculture department, DG AGRI; the Internal Security Fund Police program; and the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Program, as well as the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Program, both managed by the Commission’s home affairs department, DG HOME. 

They also targeted the CONNEcting Cities Towards Integration actiON project, the Integrated Projects of the European Social Dialogue, the contract of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility, and the Mobilities for EU project.

The private companies and industry associations concerned include: Shell, Volkswagen, Ramboll Consulting, Ricardo Nederland, BayWa Solar Projects, BusinessEurope, the North European Oil Trade Oy, PlantPress, and AgroTV.