On Thursday 15 September the European Parliament endorsed the position of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs on the legislative proposal on the statute of European political parties and their European foundations (see EUROPE 12992/3) with 392 votes in favour, 119 against and 56 abstentions.
Unlike the Council of the EU (see EUROPE 12916/23), the MEPs believe that political parties from Council of Europe member states can be members of a European political party and finance it.
“Representatives (of parties active in Council of Europe member states) form political groups with their counterparts from EU Member States in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Why not let them join EU political parties?”, asked Charles Goerens (Renew Europe, Luxembourgish), the European Parliament’s co-rapporteur on this matter, during the plenary session debate.
Despite opposition from the EPP, ECR and Identity and Democracy groups, MEPs adopted an amendment by Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Greens/EFA, French) requiring the governing bodies of European political parties and their foundations to respect gender parity by adopting a specific action plan and to combat sexual and/or gender-based harassment by simply banning this phenomenon in their internal rules.
Co-rapporteur Rainer Wieland (EPP, German) said he wanted to see strong European political parties that compete in European elections, with the participation of their presidents in national debates not being taboo. He described as a “difficult element” the share of self-generated own resources in the overall budget of a European party - 5% according to the Commission, 10% according to the European Parliament.
See the ‘Wieland/Goerens’ report: https://aeur.eu/f/33s (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)