Századvég calls for handling NGOs as lobbyists

Budapest (MTI) – The operation of non-governmental organisations is legitimate but the regulations pertaining to them should be adjusted to their nature as lobby groups, the Századvég Foundation said in a recent report.

Voters should be enabled to see it clearly which NGOs are serving what interests and what are the sources they are financed from. To this effect, all these organisations should be registered and more strictly obliged to disclose their sources of funding, it said.

The report cited Amnesty International, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ), the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, K-Monitor and the Eötvös Károly Institute as examples of NGOs that operate as lobbyists, promoting foreign interests, yet the same laws apply to them as to regular NGOs.

Századvég said that the NGOs concerned are active, ideologically motivated political players with a considerable impact on the public opinion.

Századvég noted that NGOs involved in lobbying are subject to strict regulations in Austria, Germany, Israel and the United States. In these countries NGOs, similarly to political parties and lobbying companies, are expected to reveal the source of financing they receive and the identity of their sponsors, the report said.

Source: MTI