A taxpayers group with close ties to the European People’s Party (EPP) coordinated with Austria’s far-right in the latest escalation of the NGO funding debate, DeSmog can reveal. Austria’s far-right party Freedom Party (FPÖ) — which has pushed to weaken multiple climate measures in the country — filed a separate complaint with the public prosecutor a day later. In an interview with DeSmog, TAE President Michael Jäger said that he had approached Haider and had received his support for the plans, before submitting “similar but independent” complaints to prosecutors. Though EWS claims to be “free from ideological or political constraints”, it is led by former EPP MEP Ingo Friedrich, who still sits on the board for the political party. EWS and TAE also share offices in Munich, Germany, where one of the four criminal complaints was recently filed.