Pro-migrant NGOs and the Commission
16.4.2023
Question for written answer E-001229/2023
to the Commission
Rule 138
Dominique Bilde (ID)
According to Le Figaro, ‘pro-migrant NGOs’ have a certain influence on the Commission[1].
Such organisations are said to sometimes enjoy the support of ‘Turkish diplomacy’ or “George Soros”.
The Open Society Foundation allegedly granted ‘bursaries to journalists who publish reports hostile to Frontex via the Lighthouse Reports news site’[2].
Apparently, neither Commission President Ursula von der Leyen nor the ‘Commissioner for Home Affairs’ ‘discouraged protests against alleged abuses by Frontex when, in October 2020, the Turkish authorities on the one hand and the Lighthouse Reports website on the other released videos of ill-documented authenticity denouncing the participation of Frontex agents in refoulement operations at sea’[3].
That ‘campaign’ is said to have contributed to the resignation of the Director of Frontex.
OLAF is said to have published a report based on ‘emails’ and ‘WhatsApp messages from Fabrice Leggeri and his team’, which allegedly reveal, inter alia, their conviction that ‘the Commission is on the side of NGOs defending asylum seekers’[4][5].
- 1.What links, if any, does the Commission have with Lighthouse Reports and can it comment on these assertions regarding the influence of ‘pro-migrant NGOs’?
- 2.Can it comment on the use made by OLAF of opinions expressed in private messages?
Submitted: 16.4.2023
- [1] ‘European Union: in Brussels, NGOs have gained control of migration policy’, Charles Jaigu, 16 December 2022, Le Figaro.
- [2] ‘The latter provides bursaries to journalists who publish reports hostile to Frontex via the Lighthouse Reports news site.’
- [3] ‘Neither she nor the Commissioner for Home Affairs discouraged protests against alleged abuses by Frontex when, in October 2020, the Turkish authorities on the one hand and the Lighthouse Reports website on the other released videos of ill-documented authenticity denouncing the participation of Frontex agents in refoulement operations at sea.’
- [4] ‘gives clues about Leggeri’s motives through private WhatsApp messages’(https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/frontex-scandal-classified-report-reveals-full-extent-of-cover-up-a-cd749d04-689d-4407-8939-9e1bf55175fd).
- [5] ‘The messages reveal their belief that the Commission is on the side of NGOs that are advocates of asylum-seekers.’