5 January 2026
Brussels is panicking—and for once, the reason has nothing to do with Russian tanks or climate deadlines. The real crisis is informational. It is an open secret how Europe’s so-called “civil society” has long depended on American money, much of it routed through USAID-linked programs, foundations, and transatlantic NGO networks. That money built careers, offices, media platforms, and a permanent activist bureaucracy whose main function was to police politics and impose Berkeley-style liberalism across the continent. It all changed after President Trump and Secretary Rubio all but abolished USAID, closing down an estimated 83 per cent of its projects—many of them ideological, and indeed subversive, in nature. With Washington pulling back, the EU is scrambling to replace the cash for Europe’s USAID widows.
The idea—currently being discussed behind closed doors in Brussels—appears to be the Europeanisation of what was once the global activist machine of American liberalism. As US funding dries up, the European Commission wants to step in as the new central banker of international wokery. It plans to do so with the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2028–2034). The MFF includes plans for a massive expansion of EU-level funding for NGOs, media outlets, and advocacy groups under a new umbrella programme known as AgoraEU. With a proposed budget of up to €8.6 billion, this scheme would multiply existing funding streams several times over. If approved, it will give Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission a truly formidable propaganda tool.
https://brusselssignal.eu/2026/01/how-brussels-is-moving-to-bailout-europes-left-wing-ngo-industry/