On Tuesday 17 June in Strasbourg, negotiators from the European Parliament and the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union will attempt to define the outlines of a political agreement on the reform of European political parties and their European foundations, a dossier that has been blocked since April 2023 (see EUROPE 13156/22).
The main stumbling block in this dossier concerns the participation, subject to conditions, of political parties from third countries in European political parties. Under pressure from countries such as France, the EU Council has always been reticent about such participation, citing the risk of third-country political forces interfering in the internal political life of the European Union.
According to a parliamentary source, the speech by US Vice-President James David Vance at the Munich Conference, in which he called on Germans to vote for the far-right party ‘Alternativ für Deutschland’ in the parliamentary elections, was an electroshock that helped reopen the case. Cooperation with political parties outside the EU would enable European parties to help them promote the fundamental values of the EU at home.
“There will be decisive steps, in the hope that we will be able to finalise certain aspects“ that are still pending, this European source said. But the discussions can only be finalised under the Danish Presidency of the EU Council, in the second half of 2025.
On Wednesday, the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) prepared for the forthcoming interinstitutional negotiations, reaffirming the EU Council’s March 2023 mandate (see EUROPE 13144/15).
At the end of this mandate, political parties from EU candidate countries, countries that have left the EU or certain Eastern Partnership countries could participate in the activities of a European political party as associate members. Their voting rights would be limited so that these parties do not have blocking power. The European Parliament is talking about a symbolic right to vote, under which the votes of these parties would not be counted. In addition, third-country parties would not be allowed to make a financial contribution, even in the form of a membership fee. And political parties and personalities from third countries, if subject to EU sanctions, would be excluded from European political parties.
Compliance with these provisions would be monitored by the Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations (APPF).
ELA for the People and the Planet. To note that on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 June, seven national parties held the founding congress of the ‘European Left Alliance for the People and the Planet’ party in Porto, which aims to work for “a left that breaks with the past, that is feminist, ecologist and rooted in social struggles” (see EUROPE 13472/5). This new European party promises to be “the main force opposing the ultra-liberal policies of [European Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen and the racist and sexist ideas of the far right”, according to a press release. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)