Brussels, 01/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 31 January 2013, the European Parliament's Conference of Presidents examined a request from the head of the S&D party, Hannes Swoboda, seeking ultimately to suspend European funding for two far right parties. The idea has received the backing of at least a quarter of MEPs from at least three political parties, needed to launch such a procedure under Article 210 of the European Parliament regulations. A committee of independent experts from the Parliament, European Commission and Council of Ministers will investigate whether certain European political parties are complying with EU finance rules. Once the verificiation is complete, said S&D spokesman Paolo Alberti, Parliament will vote on whether there has been a violation of its principles and, if it decides this is the case, this could lead to a suspension of subsidies.
The procedure is aimed at the European Alliance for Freedom party, which received more than €372,000 and €360,000 in EU funding in 2011 and 2013 respectively. This party includes members of the FPÖ in Austria (Andreas Mölzer), the Vlaams Belang in Belgium (Philip Claeys) and the Front National in France (Marine Le Pen), along with a representative of the UKIP party in the UK (Geoffrey Bloom). The other party in question is the European Alliance of National Movements, which includes the Jobbik party of Hungary (notorious for attacks on the Roma), Fiamma Tricolore of Italy, the PND of Bulgaria and the British National Party of the UK. (SP/transl.fl)