European Union Violates Its Ostensible Principles

At bottom, link added 1-8-2013, UPDATING 6-9-2013
  
Anti-Zionism is the anti-imperialism of fools.
Eliyahu m'Tsiyon

Europe, and the European Union within it, have played a central role in the acts of treachery against Israel and the Jews, some of them described in the three previous posts and to be described in Part IV of the Broken Promises series. Of course, the EU regularly violates the lofty principles on which it supposedly stands. For almost three years it has been quite flagrantly violating the principle of solidarity among the peoples of the Union in the case of Greece where EU stinginess  toward suffering Euro brethren is frankly shocking. While stingy with their Greek brethren, whose living standards have been forced down severely by the demands of the EU and its ECB [European Central Bank] and of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] --even to the point of cutting health benefits & funds for medicines-- the EU keeps on funding the "Palestinian Authority" with about 1/2 billion euros per year, plus grants from EU member states  and special grants for various projects. Much of the money goes into the pockets of PA leaders and officials and into the pockets of their families. The PA schools and communications media constantly make genocidal hate indoctrination, propaganda and incitement against Israel and all Jews. This use of EU funds does not lead to a reduction in funding, whereas funds given to Greece on account of its economic crisis are closely supervised and sometime funds  are withheld. This does not happen to the PA.


Another principle violated is transparency in the work of the EU itself. The lack of transparency is strikingly evident in the EU's attitude toward Israel, the collective Jew, whereas in fact Jews have been the target of Euro hatred since the Roman Empire.Transparency is necessary for real democratic government. The EU lacks transparency, inter alia, in the way it allocates its funding for anti-Israel so-called "non-governmental organizations" [NGOs]. The recent case of NGO Monitor's efforts to get real information out of the EU about which "NGOs" the EU is to fund and on what grounds is instructive. Obviously, the EU does not want peace between Israel and the Arabs but I will go into that another time.

Here is NGO Monitor's account of how the EU shamelessly violates its own principle of transparency, with the approval of the so-called European Court of Justice.

EU Court Decision on NGO Monitor Case Highlights EU’s Secrecy

NGO Monitor December 27, 2012
On November 27, 2012, the European Court of Justice ruled on an NGO Monitor petition concerning the EU’s lack of transparency in its NGO funding practices. The court found that the EU did not provide documents requested by NGO Monitor in a timely fashion, and that this “must be regarded as an implicit decision to refuse access.” However, it also upheld the denial of access, essentially permitting the EU to hide its NGO decision making from the public.

Background

The European Union funnels tens of millions of taxpayer euros to political advocacy NGOs every year. Many of these groups engage in campaigns and activities that are entirely inconsistent with declared European foreign policy; the activities include BDS (boycotts, divestment, sanctions), “one state” proposals, anti-normalization with Israel campaigns, and abusing the courts through frivolous “war crimes” cases. Not only do these activities contradict European policies, but they promote conflict and violence.

Moreover, the available evidence suggests that the EU has been unethically seeking to manipulate Israeli democracy by funding political advocacy NGOs such as Adalah, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Mossawa, Machsom Watch, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I), and Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI). Due to EU secrecy, the only available non-censored document is a leaked protocol from a meeting on NGO funding from 1999. This shows an explicit and concerted plan to support NGOs in an effort to manipulate Israeli voting patterns.
 
For the past decade, NGO Monitor has attempted to systematically track this funding, to allow European taxpayers, officials, Israelis, and Palestinians to independently evaluate and respond. As part of that process, in 2008, NGO Monitor submitted a detailed request to the EU, asking for documents related to this funding (under the EU’s Freedom of Information Law – FOI). After delaying compliance with the law for more than six months, the EU provided NGO Monitor with documents that were heavily redacted and whited out, essentially covering up all relevant information under the purported rationale of national security and proprietary interests.

Under the procedure mandated by the FOI law, NGO Monitor, represented by Asserson Law Offices, next turned to the European Court of Justice seeking compliance. The NGO Monitor petition noted that the EU was blocking independent evaluation of its NGO funding decisions, and preventing the public from knowing whether its practices are consistent with due process of law. In its response to the court, the European Commission admitted that officials had censored the meaningful details, including “the conclusions of the monitoring” and “the conclusions of the audit[s],” as well as “additional remarks” made by evaluators. The court also found that the EU did not provide the documents in a timely fashion, and that this ‘must be regarded as an implicit decision to refuse access.”

In direct contradiction, however, the court upheld the denial of access, and issued a decision without taking evidence or conducting hearings on NGO Monitor’s petition, nor providing NGO Monitor an opportunity to appear before the Court. This procedure is highly irregular, and highlights the degree to which the EU fears public release of the protocols for NGO funding decisions.
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The boldface emphasis is my own. The full account is here. Also see this report on the EU-NGO relationship.
Prof. Gerald Steinberg of NGO Monitor draws conclusions about the EU's surreptitious conduct regarding its subsidies to so-called "NGOs" in an op ed in HaArets. [so-called "NGOs" because they are not "non-governmental organizations" but rather are funded by governments and associations of governments such as the EU].  
More on EU funding thwarting peace from NGOMonitor here.

Part IV of the series "Another Broken Promise Made to Jews" will come soon.