Brussels, 20/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Chairman of the EPP-ED Group, Hans-Gert Pöttering, from Germany, welcomed the European Commission's proposal concerning the statute and financing arrangements for European political parties (yesterday's EUROPE, p.4). He said it was an important step in acknowledging the role of European political parties and ensuring transparency in their actions. Recalling that the Treaty of Nice provides for codecision procedure and qualified majority vote in Council, the CDU elected member expressed the hope that the statute would soon be adopted.
Danish national Jens-Peter Bonde, Chair of the Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities (EDD), on the other hand, said the proposal was discriminatory. "I find it unwise to use eight million EUR of taxpayers money to fund supranational parties", he says in a press release before adding that, according to the terms of the proposal, only five of the largest parties will receive funding and that this "is against the principle of equality and it is an infringement of the Nice Treaty". "The EDD Group is opposed to taxpayers' money being used to line the pockets of already wealthy big political movements", the press release says, affirming: "The intention of this proposal is clear - to bankroll friends and to undermine enemies and thereby turn politics throughout the EU into a criticism-free zone".