If you've been following the news, you may have noticed that over the past few years, politics in Europe has taken a turn to the far right. Authoritarian populists have been doing better in elections - for example in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Austria. Sometimes they join governing coalitions. Sometimes they do so well that they win a majority, like in Hungary and Poland.
Populist authoritarians come to power on a wave of fear, blaming political, economic and social problems on scapegoats like migrants, LGBTI persons, feminists and ethnic minorities. Once they are in power, they target the courts, to make it harder for judges to protect our rights. They try to take over or pressure the media, to spread their propaganda. And they target rights and democracy groups to strangle public criticism.
Liberties was the first organisation to publish research explaining the main tactics being used by European governments to silence activists. These included government smear campaigns, drowning organisations in red tape and regulations and cutting or blocking funding. Two years ago, Liberties suggested that the EU help rights and democracy groups inside Europe in the same way that it does outside Europe, by setting up a new fund to support them.
Click here to fight for democracy - send our model email to the Commission
Since then, our idea has become more and more popular. So Liberties published a new piece of research explaining in detail what this new fund, which we called the European Values Instrument, could look like. It has been endorsed by hundreds of rights and democracy groups, the UN and by the EU's Agency for Fundamental Rights. And at the end of April, a large majority of MEPs in the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the European Commission to create the European Values Instrument.
Now the ball is in the European Commission's court. The Commission has said that it wants to dedicate more money to supporting rights and democracy groups in the EU. On the 30th of May the Commission will publish its proposal for a new funding programme, the Justice, Rights and Values Programme. But it is far from clear what the Commission intends to do. The signs are that the Commission will ignore the European Parliament and only make small changes to existing rules. This is unacceptable for two reasons. First, this will not be enough to help organisations fighting for civil liberties to keep democracy alive and healthy across Europe. Second, the European Parliament is the only EU institution that is directly elected by the people of Europe. The EU cannot claim to uphold democracy while at the same time side-lining the institution with the strongest democratic credentials.
