On Tuesday 21 November, the committee on constitutional affairs of the European Parliament reached its position on reform of the rules governing the activities of European parties and European political foundations (regulation 1141/2014).
One of the key measures of the legislative proposal consists of ensuring that the EU's financial support corresponds better to the political representativeness within the European Parliament, by cutting the share of overall EU financial aid distributed fairly between the political parties (see EUROPE 11863).
In September, the Commission proposed reducing this share from 15% to 5% of the total envelope, whilst the MEPs put this limit at 10%. The other 90% will be distributed on the basis of the representativeness of national parties that belong to European parties within the Parliament.
This increase in the threshold compared to the initial proposal should ensure that the smaller European parties, many of which are Eurosceptic or Europhobic, are less affected.
Noting that parties can struggle to meet the obligation to find external co-financing for at least 15% of their budgets, the MEPs put the threshold at 10% for parties and 5% for foundations.
The parliamentary committee also adopted the Commission's proposal whereby only national parties should be able to support the registration of a political party. The aim is to ensure that natural persons, who will always be able to join a political party, cannot help to form more than one European party, an abuse that has been observed under the current rules.
Finally, in the event of any infringement of the funding rules or the transmission of false information when a European party is registered, Parliament's independent authority will be required to withdraw the accreditation issued. The future European Public Prosecutor's Office should also be authorised to carry out investigations in the event of allegations of abusive use of European subsidies, the MEPs argue.
The MEPs' aim is to work quickly so that the revised regulation will be in force ahead of the European elections of spring 2019. Inter-institutional negotiations with the Council of the EU will start once the member states have reached their position. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)