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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
NGO Monitor Sues European Union to Compel Full Disclosure of NGO Funding Activities

Press Release

January 20, 2010

Israel Watchdog Group Sues European Union for
“Transparency Failure”

NGO Monitor Bringing Suit to Compel Full Disclosure of NGO Funding
Activities

(JERUSALEM) NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based watchdog group, announced at a
press conference today that it has brought suit against the European
Commission (EC) for failing to fulfill EU transparency obligations regarding
the distribution of funding to non-government organizations (NGOs).

NGO Monitor President Professor Gerald Steinberg said that his group
resorted to legal recourse after 13 months of attempts to secure documents
detailing non-governmental agency funding by the EC, the executive branch of
the European Union. Under the European Freedom of Information law, such
funding details must be made available upon request. However, the EC cited
“public security,” “privacy,” and “commercial interests” in denying NGO
Monitor’s information request.

NGO Monitor legal counsel, Trevor Asserson of Asserson Law Offices,
dismissed these reasons as “absurd” and “essentially unsupportable.” He
described the EU activity as “typical of the types of obfuscation that one
gets when someone does not want to do what they are meant to do.”

The lawsuit, filed yesterday at the European Court of Justice, seeks “to
obligate the European Union, which claims to be a law-abiding institution
and committed to looking out for the interests of world peace and security,
to act according to its mandate and reveal these documents and the full
extent of their funding.”

NGO Monitor disclosed that its researchers identified 177 million shekels
provided by the EC since June 2005 to NGOs active in Israel and the
Palestinian Authority. Many of these organizations are active in the
strategy of demonization which seeks to isolate Israel, using lawfare and
boycott campaigns. The organization alleges that EC allocations are made
without full public disclosure of its decision-making processes or
evaluation procedures.

“We therefore argue that absent appropriate documentation, European citizens
are in the dark as to how their taxpayer funds are being used,” Steinberg
said. “If the European Union were to actually comply with its regulations,
we wouldn’t be here right now.”

1 Ben Maimon Blvd, Jerusalem, 92268
Tel: +972-2-566-1020 Fax: +972-77-511-7030
For more info contact Fox.Rachel@ngo-monitor.org

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