Strasbourg, 17/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission did not, in the end, adopt, Wednesday in Strasbourg, its proposal on the statute and financing of European political parties, and it even postponed it to another meeting. Already before its presentation, the initiative had raised some criticisms (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.5, concerning the statements by the President of the United Left/Northern Left group in the EP, and, below, the reactions of the British Conservatives).
The draft regulation should have been submitted to the College asserting that "every European political party or union of parties established in the European Union can register its statute of European political party with the European Parliament on condition of respecting, in its programme and its activities, the fundamental principals, included in the Treaty of European Union, of democracy, respect for fundamental rights and the rule of law". Such a party must have formed a political group in the European Parliament or have the intention of forming one or taking part in an existing group. In the case of a challenge against the existence of these conditions, the European Parliament will be entrusted with deciding, after opinion from a "committee of the wise" nominated every five years through a common agreement by the EP, Commission and Council.
These parties could benefit from a Community financing covering 80% of their annual budget, on condition of submitting to an auditing by the Court of Auditors and passing on all the necessary documents to do this. The financing will come from a specific budget whose total will be distributed in the following manner: 15% of this amount will be equally divided between the parties eligible from Community financing and 85% between the parties that are elected to the European Parliament, proportionally according to their number of members. To be eligible, a party will have to fulfil one of the three following conditions: - have members in the EP, in the national or regional parliaments at least a third of the Member States; - have a political group in the EP; - have gained at least 5% of the votes in the last European elections in one third of the Member States.
The Time from Wednesday asserts that such rules for the financing of European parties means that Labour and the Liberal Democrats, which are respectively members of the European Socialist Party and the Liberal Democrats and European Reformers, would be eligible, which would not be the case for the Tories, which are only "allies" to the EPP. The London daily quotes the British Conservative Chris Heathon-Haris, member of the European Parliament asserting that this proposal would be a crucial step in "the creation of a European corporate State".