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I recently discovered that Social Platform has a very shocking neighbour only two buildings away from the office: the Alliance for Peace and Freedom (AFP). Why shocking? We both share an appealing and progressive name. We are both “staunch supporters of the fundamental human right to a peaceful life with a decent standard of living” and we are both working “for a better Europe”. My problem is that beyond the name and proclaimed basic values and principles, we have absolutely nothing in common – in fact, we are at loggerheads in terms of our actions. Still, we are both funded by the European Union.

Don’t let AFP’s flowery name fool you. It is a European political party made up of national extreme-right parties. On its board sit representatives from Forza Nuova in Italy, Golden Dawn in Greece, the National Democratic Party (NPD) in Germany and a former member of the Front National in France. Their democratic legitimacy is even challenged at national level. Last March, the German Bundesrat requested the Federal Constitutional court to ban the NPD as an anti-Semitic party and a threat to the democratic order. In 1985, the President of the AFP, Roberto Fiore, was sentenced in absentia for being a member of a fascist terror group. The Secretary General is a Swede with a neo-Nazi past. These are the men who purport to support peace, freedom and human rights. The AFP shares its office with its political foundation, Europa Terra Nostra, which also pushes forward nationalist, far-right ideologies.

The fact that AFP-ETM is using human rights rhetoric to legitimise its EU funding is an important signal to us all to be more vigilant. We should always look at what activities political parties and associations are actually doing, rather than what they proclaim to stand for. Altogether, AFP-ETN received nearly €600,000 in EU funding, some of which went towards organising a neo-Nazi meeting in Stockholm. Is this really what EU money should fund? I don’t think so.

This leads me to a more fundamental question. At a time when it is so difficult for civil society organisations to get financial support from the EU, how did AFP-ETM get a grant of €600,000 from the European Parliament? Perhaps it is down to the growing gap between words and actions. AFP-ETN has played the Parliament when completing the application for funding; key words such as human rights, peace and freedom are all catch words for the Parliament’s funding programmes. By the time Members of the European Parliament became aware of the applications, it was already too late. This should serve as a lesson to the Parliament; it should check the beneficiary’s political affiliations and board members, not just their mission statement.

It’s not only shocking that I have a very unpleasant neighbour that disguises itself as a human rights party. It’s also shocking and saddening that it managed to get funding from the EU – funding that could have been much better spent elsewhere. MEPs who criticise the actions of the AFP-ETN paid for by EU money should also ensure greater funding support for progressive civil society organisations. They have the power to act now, not just react when it is too late. In few weeks the Parliament’s Cultural Affairs committee will adopt its report on the Europe for Citizens programme that funds us and a lot of other civil society organisations. We are calling on Members of the European Parliament to significantly increase its budget. At the moment it stands at a very low 0.0171% of the Multinannual Financial Framework. We deserve better.

Let’s engage!

Pierre Baussand, Director