EUAID, Part 4 – How Brussels Funds Anti-Government NGOs: Amnesty International Hungary

In its series, Magyar Nemzet presents the anti-government pseudo-NGOs that have received the most financial support from Brussels in recent years. In this fourth installment, we focus on funding received by Amnesty International, which - over the past few years - has exceeded 412,000 euros. That amounts to more than 168 million forints in funding. Amnesty has done everything in its power to block EU funds from reaching Hungary, and has also played a leading role in attacking the country’s child protection law.

Illustration (Photo: Tamas Kovacs)

Amnesty International Hungary has received 412,000 euros in recent years — more than 168 million forints at today’s exchange rate, according to data from the European Commission’s financing and grants portal. While this amount is notable, it is less than what other organizations examined in this series have received: Transparency International Hungary was awarded 520,000 euros, while the Hungarian Hungarian Helsinki Committee secured 1.3 million euros from Brussels. The biggest beneficiary was the Ökotárs Foundation, which took in some 3.61 million euros — nearly 1.5 billion forints — much of which it's redistributed among anti-government NGOs.

Subversive Work Against Hungary

Like other organizations previously profiled in our series, Amnesty International Hungary has been a vocal critic of the Orban government since the beginning — a stance that appears to be quite lucrative. Another common thread is their participation in preparing the European Commission’s annual rule-of-law reports. In its 2023 report, Amnesty stated the following: “The success of the work we have carried out for the past four years, together with our civil society partners, is reflected in the fact that many of our recommendations appear in the report published in July…”

Another piece of evidence of this subversive activity can be found in this excerpt of their report covering the month of April:

We evaluated, point by point, the Hungarian government’s actions aimed at meeting the conditions for accessing EU funds. Together with our civil society partners, we concluded that the government has not taken adequate steps to fully address the rule-of-law and human rights concerns raised — including those related to the rights of sexual and gender minorities. As a result, it has not met the majority of the conditions for accessing EU funds. Once again, we shared our findings with EU decision-makers to help them make better-informed choices regarding Hungary’s commitments and the possible disbursement of frozen funds,

– the report states.

Attacks on Child Protection

Amnesty has taken a leading role in opposing Hungary’s child protection law. The legislation in question protects children’s right to identity consistent with their birth sex, shields them from LGBTQ-related propaganda, and increases penalties for crimes committed against minors. These measures provoked outrage in Brussels. In its aforementioned 2023 report, Amnesty wrote about its lobbying efforts against the child protection law as follows:

"Since 2021, we have worked to have this unlawful law repealed (...). To achieve this, it’s essential that as many people as possible demand its abolition. As part of our advocacy, we called on decision-makers in EU member states to participate in the legal proceedings and explain why they believe the Hungarian government’s discriminatory law is unlawful. Thanks in part to our efforts, a record number — 15 member states, as well as the European Parliament — chose to take an active stand against the homophobic and transphobic law."

The report also notes that one of Amnesty’s youth activists participated in and spoke at the Brussels Pride event on May 20, 2023, where the goal was again to discredit Hungary's child protection law.

Incoming Funds

Amnesty has taken part in five projects launched by the European Commission in recent years — three as a beneficiary and two as a coordinator. These projects were generally LGBTQ-focused or aligned with gender ideology. They included:

• Wishing Well(Kivansagkut): Improving the health and well-being of transgender people in Hungary, from May 2024 to April 2026 (36,905 euros)
• Stopping online violence against women and girls by changing youth attitudes and behavior through human rights education, from December 2021 to April 2024 (56,860 euros)
• Expanding opportunities for young people in gender-atypical careers, from January 2023 to December 2024 (122,801 euros)
• Creating inclusive spaces through human rights education and alternative learning pathways, February 2022 to April 2024 (75,642 euros)
• Combating gender-based violence by addressing masculinity and changing youth behavior through human rights education, from May 2022 to August 2024 (120,664 euros)

In total, Amnesty received over 412,000 euros from the European Commission in recent years. Without this funding, the pseudo-NGO would likely be unable to continue its work. Amnesty’s most recent available annual report, from 2023, shows that it operated on a budget of 408 million forints — approximately one million euros. Of this, 3.4 million forints came from Hungary’s 1% income tax donation scheme, 1.6 million from membership fees, and 4.7 million from its online shop. In other words, only a negligible portion of its funding comes from Hungarian citizens via traditional means.

The bulk of Amnesty’s revenue stems from foreign governmental and non-governmental sources, including the European Commission, the German Marshall Fund —well-known for funding foreign interventions — and Amnesty International’s central and affiliated organizations abroad. It is clear that without help from the European Commission, Amnesty’s Hungarian branch would be forced to drastically scale back its operations.

Cover photo: Illustration (Photo: Tamas Kovacs)