{"id":77418,"date":"2025-07-29T13:49:44","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T11:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=77418"},"modified":"2025-07-30T09:49:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T07:49:31","slug":"court-attacks-and-defunding-ngos-a-growing-pattern-of-silencing-protest-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/77418\/court-attacks-and-defunding-ngos-a-growing-pattern-of-silencing-protest-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Court attacks and defunding NGOs: a growing pattern of silencing protest in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\u00a9 H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Boissel-Arrieta \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Boissel-Arrieta \/ Greenpeace” alt=”May Day Demonstration against Far-Right Party in Paris, France.
\u00a9 H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Boissel-Arrieta \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Boissel-Arrieta \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-77419″\/>
May Day Demonstration against Far-Right Party in Paris, France.
\u00a9 H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Boissel-Arrieta \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Speaking up against the actions of the rich and powerful, or openly resisting them, has always come with dangers, as Greenpeace well knows. Forty years ago this July, the French secret service bombed Greenpeace\u2019s ship<\/a> Rainbow Warrior ahead of a planned protest against nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific, killing photographer Fernando Pereira.<\/p>\n\n

\"Fernando
Fernando Pereira, the Greenpeace photographer who died in the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior.
\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

In March of this year, a jury in North Dakota, USA, found Greenpeace International and Greenpeace in the USA liable for over $660m [\u20ac560m] million in damages to the pipeline company Energy Transfer related to the ongoing Indigenous-led Standing Rock resistance to the Dakota Access oil pipeline. This is an attempt to saddle the organisations with backbreaking legal expenses in order to silence them.<\/p>\n\n

On 2 July 2025, Greenpeace had its first hearing in a Dutch court<\/a> to use the EU\u2019s new protections against these types of spurious lawsuits to shut down free speech \u2013 the first time this EU law will be put into action. Not all attacks on the right to protest, attacks on people standing up for their rights or to protect nature, gain as much international attention, but they are as numerous as they are insidious. <\/p>\n\n

\"Photo
People gather outside the New Amsterdam Courthouse to mark the beginning of Greenpeace International’s anti-SLAPP lawsuit against Energy Transfer filed in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
\u00a9 Tengbeh Kamara \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

People defending nature, their rights or their homelands from exploitation are to this day victims of violence and even murder, particularly in Latin America<\/a>. Some of these, like the murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, make it to headlines<\/a> around the world, but many more remain out of the spotlight.<\/p>\n\n

In Europe, those who profit from the destruction of nature, and their political allies happy to trample people\u2019s civil rights, also use a diversity of tactics to silence critics. NGOs fighting to protect nature and for a safe climate have been targeted by centre-right and far-right politicians in the EU, with attempts to defund<\/a> them, leaving the debate over EU environmental policy dominated by fossil-fuel destructive industries with armies of hired lobbyists.<\/p>\n\n

The European Commission is also pressuring<\/a> civil society groups working on health and patients\u2019 rights into silence with the threat of EU funds being withdrawn. The European Parliament has set up a working group<\/a> in its budget committee to specifically target NGO funding, ignoring calls to look into the EU funding that businesses receive. With fewer voices speaking out for the protection of the environment and people\u2019s rights, the companies who can buy the biggest megaphone would drown out dissent to their exploitative business models.<\/p>\n\n

Coverage of these attacks on NGO funding in the EU has gone worldwide, and risks emboldening governments elsewhere to crack down on civil society in their countries, and for unscrupulous industries to encourage it. We already see the salmon industry in Chile calling on the government there<\/a> to take action against campaign groups who resist its expansion, saying that the EU is doing the same.<\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace organisations don\u2019t receive funding from the EU, nor from governments or corporations, so companies driving the climate crisis and nature destruction find other avenues of attack when they can\u2019t pressure these funders. <\/p>\n\n

Shell, TotalEnergies, Eni<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Shell sued Greenpeace International and Greenpeace UK, demanding millions of dollars in damages and seeking an injunction to prevent the organisations from approaching its extraction sites to peacefully protest, eventually settling<\/a>. TotalEnergies sued Greenpeace France in an attempt to silence criticism of the oil and gas giant\u2019s emission\u2019s calculations, but the case was dismissed by the court<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

The Italian oil and gas company Eni is currently suing Greenpeace Netherlands, Greenpeace Italy and ReCommon<\/a> for criticism of the fossil fuel company, in apparent retaliation for a lawsuit that Greenpeace Italy and Recommon brought against them.<\/p>\n\n

In Romania, the state gas company Romgaz has just tried to sue to dissolve the local Greenpeace organisation<\/a> for opposing Europe\u2019s largest gas project, Neptun Deep in the Black Sea \u2014 backing down at the last minute.<\/p>\n\n

\"Activists
Greenpeace Romania activists go to the Ministry of Energy in Bucharest for a peaceful protest against SLAPPs against climate organizations .
\u00a9 Patric Pavel \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Legal action aimed at intimidating journalists, activists and NGOs are becoming increasingly common in Europe. In a non-exhaustive list, the Coalition Against SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation) in Europe has identified 1,049 such cases<\/a> filed between 2010 and 2023.<\/p>\n\n

But European governments are also stripping away people\u2019s right to take to the streets in peaceful protest too, for the environment or for other causes.<\/p>\n\n

The Hungarian government recently banned all Pride events, leaving the LGBT+ community at risk of prosecution for demanding equal rights \u2014 though it thankfully backfired<\/a> \u2014 and plans new laws<\/a> to sanction NGOs and journalists.<\/p>\n\n

The Italian government used an emergency procedure to force through new laws<\/a> that criminalise many forms of protest, targeting tactics commonly used by climate protesters, and giving the police sweeping powers. In Spain, successive governments have upheld a \u2018gag law\u2019<\/a> that penalises peaceful protest, also seemingly written with climate protest tactics as the template.<\/p>\n\n

In Germany, police have arrested protesters for speaking Irish<\/a> during a peaceful Palestine solidarity protest outside the Irish embassy, and have attempted to deport<\/a> four foreign protesters.<\/p>\n\n

In the UK, Amnesty is warning<\/a> about repeated government attempts to restrict the right to protest, and this year police reportedly broke into a Quaker meeting house<\/a> to arrest people planning a Gaza war demonstration and the government has banned a Palestine solidarity group as a terrorist organisation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

In France, the government tried to \u2018dissolve\u2019 the environmental protest group Soul\u00e8vements de la Terre \u2013 a procedure designed in the 1930s to remove violent fascist groups that posed a threat to the state \u2013 before it was blocked by the Council of State<\/a>. The UN expert on environmental defenders has called France the worst country in Europe<\/a> for police repression of green activism. <\/p>\n\n

Taken together, the pattern is clear. Powerful interests resent the truth being spoken, and seek to silence their critics in any way they can. Every bomb, bullet, lawsuit or arrest is supposed to act as a warning to others: stay quiet, or you could be next.<\/p>\n\n

The world is burning around us. We have a duty to stand up for nature, people and the planet. But all around the world people are being dragged into court rooms for defending their communities and raising their voices against injustice.<\/p>\n\n

SLAPPs are meant to silence people, draining money, time and energy from those speaking truth to power. Threats to funding and turning up the pressure on peaceful protest does the same. We must protect the right to peaceful protest and criticism of the powerful, as if all of our other rights depended on it. Because they do.<\/p>\n\n

This story was originally published by <\/em>EUobserver<\/em><\/a> on 3 July 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFight the billionaire takeover\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Take action to fight the billionaire takeover and corporate intimidation.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t \n Take action\n <\/a>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking up against the actions of the rich and powerful, or openly resisting them, has always come with dangers, as Greenpeace well knows. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":77419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"ET SLAPP","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[144],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-77418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about","tag-et-slapp","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77418"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77473,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77418\/revisions\/77473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77418"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=77418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}