After the 2024 European elections, some MEPs from the right-wing groups mounted a defamatory campaign against NGOs, claiming that they were being paid by the European Commission to lobby MEPs for the Commission’s interests. To respond to this, CSE organised a Task Force against the attacks on NGO funding, coordinating a vast coalition of civil society to follow the different facets of the smear campaign.

Civil Society Europe gathered the support of 600 civil society organisations against the smear campaign. After the proposal of an inquiry committee against NGOs proposed by the far-right, CSE also signed a joint letter urging the democratic forces to reject the inquiry, and a further statement condemning the approval of a working group in the European Parliament to scrutinize NGO funding.