Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. SOME POLITICAL PARTIES ARE OUT THERE TO DESTROY CIVIL SOCIETY It seems that some right-wing and extreme right politicians don't like NGOs. Perhaps because they confront politicians with an uncomfortable truth, appealing to their conscience. Perhaps because some MEPs genuinely don't believe that organised civil society should have a voice in decision-making, and that politicians should only listen to corporate lobbies who represent their own economic interest. Or, as one German EPP MEP put it a while ago, because they prefer twenty extra cows in the field in Bavaria over financing an NGO. More intellectual honesty came when the instigator of the Parliament's NGO Scrutiny Group admitted in February that the purpose of the non-committee was not to scrutinize spending, but…

Welcome to Better Europe's weekly update on EU Affairs. COMMISSION CAN'T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES The rules to prevent products from deforestation to be sold in Europe will apply one day -- perhaps that is the only positive message to come out of the Commission's readjustment of the anti-deforestation rules published this week. That is legal certainty that EU companies will appreciate. Unless your company is importing leather onto the EU market oncourse, and had started to prepare for application of the rules. In fact, it is much more effective to lobby against the rules, as luxury leather bags producers have been doing for the past year. As a result of their effort, the Commission now proposes to take the sector out of scope, compared to a previous…