The complaint comes on the back of ongoing demands from right-wing European political groups to scrutinize how NGOs use EU funding.

“We need transparency. And if there was something against the law, illegal things, it should be controlled by the EU prosecutor and by the court,” said the taxpayer’s association President Michael Jäger. The group’s complaint, first reported by the German media outlet Bild, was also filed to the public prosecutor’s office in Munich.

“We can confirm that we have received a complaint. All further matters are currently under review,” a spokesperson from the Munich public prosecutor told POLITICO.

The context

A fierce political debate over whether NGOs and civil society groups should be allowed to use public funds for advocacy and lobbying activities has taken Brussels by storm in recent months.

The Commission instructed NGOs to stop using EU operating grants to fund advocacy work last year amid accusations from conservative and right-wing MEPs that the EU executive was signing “secret contracts” with NGOs, paying them to lobby other EU institutions on topics like the European Green Deal and the Mercosur trade agreeement.

Last April, the European Court of Auditors criticized the Commission for handing out billions of euros to NGOs annually without properly monitoring how the money is spent.