Brussels, 22/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, German Social Democrat Jo Leinen reproaches the Swedish Presidency for having withdrawn the point on the financing of European political parties from the agenda of the General Affairs Council to be held next Monday in Luxembourg. He notes that the Council will therefore not be able to give its stance before October, which almost certainly destroys all hope of seeing political parties benefit from Community financing under the budget 2002.
The Swedish Presidency had to withdraw this point from its agenda after having noted that there are still, because of different political traditions in the different Member States, still several points that should be discussed. To this must be added a more technical reason: the Commission has not yet forwarded to the Council its amended proposal after the opinion given on 17 May by the European Parliament (see EUROPE of 18 May, p.5).