Background to the recent governmental attacks on NGOs supported through the
EEA/Norway Grant in Hungaryi
The attacks have already received considerable international attention in the past few weeksii. The
EEA/Norway Grants themselves are a financial support mechanism provided to less developed
EU Member states by non-EU European countries cooperating with the Union through the
European Economic Area (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein). The general goal of the support,
which benefits 15 countries altogether, is to reduce the economic and social disparities in Europe.
The bulk of the funding is managed by the administration of the beneficiary countries and is aimed
at a wide range of sectors from public health through cultural heritage to renewable energies.
However, in each country – upon the decision of the donors – app. 10% of the support is
earmarked for strengthening civil society.
These NGO Programmes as a rule are operated by grantmaking organizations independent from
the state and with close ties to the target group – i.e. civil society. The operators are selected through
an open tendering process and contracted by the EEA/Norway Grants Brussels-based secretariat,
the Financial Mechanism Office.
In Hungary, a 4-foundation consortium lead by Ökotárs / Hungarian environmental Partnership
Foundation was selected in 2012 to carry out this work – in fact for the second time, as they
operated the NGO Programme during the first, previous financing period between 2008 and 2011.
Both Ökotárs and its partners – Autonómia Foundation, Foundation for the Development of
Democratic Rights and Carpathian Foundation-Hungary – were established in the early 1990’s
upon US private or public initiatives as grantmaking organizations redistributing funds to various
segments of Hungarian NGOs committed to develop democracy after the political changes.
The EEA/Norway NGO programmes in all countries have a very strong focus on democracy,
human rights and the rights of minorities, transparency and public participation, social justice, etc.
Within this framework, Ökotárs launched the first call for proposals in early 2013 in 7 thematic
areas and in two project categories (macro projects up to 120-140,000 € and micro projects up to
10,000 €). Grantees were evaluated, selected and contracted during the summer: in this round 23
macro and 105 micro projects were supported. The second call was announced in the beginning of
2014, in medium (up to 70,000 €) and micro (up to 20,000 ,u) categories – full proposals are just
now being evaluated.
The Hungarian government, while agreeing to include the NGO Programme in the overall
framework with the above-described rules, has already during the selection of the operator tried to
exert pressure in favor of their candidates and against the eventually winning consortium, but then
this remained behind the scenes. The first public attacks were made in summer 2013 by a progovernment weekly which accused Ökotárs and its evaluation process as being biased in favor of
the green party LMP and also that decision-making is influenced by the agents of George Soros.
The “proof” of this was names of some of the contributors, who at some point of their carrier had
something to with LMP and that some of the grantees are also beneficiaries of the Open Society
Foundations. But these then went quite unnoticed. Not so in April this year when János Lázár,
head of the Prime Minister’s Office announced that they ask the donors to reconsider the choice
of the NGO Programme’s operator, repeating the above accusations.
This announcement was preceded by significant changes in the Hungarian administrative system
handling the EU Funds and also the EEA/Norway Grants – at the end of last year the central
managing agency was abolished, without any negotiations or agreement with the donors, who
considered this as a unilateral breach of the agreement with Hungary. Negotiations about the new
institutional system did not go well, eventually leading to the suspension of funding in early May.
This only affected the programmes managed by the Hungarian government and not the NGO
Fund (see:
http://www.norvegia.hu/Norsk/EEA-and-Norway-Grants1/EEA-and-NorwayGrants/Suspension-of-EEA-and-Norway-Grants-to-Hungary1/#.U6Q8XEDm7Os)
During the following weeks, attacks against the NGO Programme further increased, basically
repeating the same accusations about the operator’s political affiliation and bias, and eventually
culminated in announcing that the Government’s Control Office will carry out an audit of the
NGO Programme to “reveal” this. According to both agreements between the donors and
Hungary and Hungarian national legislation this office has no jurisdiction over the NGO
programme, as the programme is not part of the Hungarian budget or system in any way. The
Norwegian government strongly protested against this move (see:
http://www.norvegia.hu/Norsk/EEA-and-Norway-Grants1/EEA-and-NorwayGrants/Proposed-investigation-of-the-NGO-Fund-by-the-Government-ControlOffice/#.U6Q9NUDm7Ot), nonetheless, the audit began on the 2^nd of June at the offices of 3
of the foundations, which were forced to hand over certain documents in order to maintain their
operation. On the 19^th of June this audit was extended to the grantees, when 58 NGOs received
a notification from the control office to submit all documents related to their (past or present)
Norway-supported grants. In the meanwhile, both the Norwegian government and most recently
the US expressed grave concerns against what cannot be seen anything but a full-fledged attach on
the critical voices of rights-based and advocacy NGOs in Hungary (see:
http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/ud/press/news/2014/civil-society-hungary.html?id=762213
http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2014/06/20140619302354.html#axzz357h
2aJsI)
NGOs both in Hungary and abroad also protest against this harassment (e.g.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR27/002/2014/en/5a8bdc49-7960-408f-b8e85e49c9e564d7/eur270022014en.html), and organized an international solidarity action on the 12th
of June (when high-level negotiation between Hungary and Norway too place), but it seems that
the Hungarian government is intent in following through with its actions, and the attacks are most
likely to continue. Under this circumstances, all NGOs working for an open and democratic society
are under immediate threat and their survival is greatly endangered without international help and
support.
i
Prepared by Ökotárs Foundation
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2014/06/02/world/europe/02reuters-hungary-norway-fundingngo.html?hp&_r=0
https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21searchin/norveglove/http$3A$2F$2F/norveglove/8r5t43Hopgc/gCh3g
huKlvsJ
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140602/hungary-escalates-aid-row-norway-raids-ngos
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21604214-freedom-expression-under-threat-lazar-affair
ii