Brussels, 28/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, Danish Juni-B MEP Jens-Peter Bonde, the chairman of the Europe of Democracies and Diversities group (EDD), presented the appeal he has just submitted along with 22 other MEPs to the Court of Justice with a view to getting the regulation on the status and funding of the European political parties overturned, because they believe it infringes provisions of the Treaty. The 22 MEPs are: French sovereignists William Abitbol, Georges Berthu, Paul-Marie Couteaux, Florence Kuntz, Thierry de La Perrière, Dominique Souchet; French hunting MEPs Jean-Louis Bernié, Yves Butel; the Danes Bent Anderson and Ulla Sandbaek (EDD); the British Graham Booth, Nigel Farage and Jeffrey Tittford (EDD); British Conservatives Daniel Hannan and Roger Helmer (EPP-ED); GUE/NGL group Swedes Herman Schmid and Jonas Sjöstedt and Danes Ole Krarup and Pernille Frahm; Greens/FTA group Swedes Per Gahrton and Inger Schörling; FPÖ Austrian Hans Kronberger. 12 Polish and 3 Czech observers lent their support to the proceedings.
The initiators of the appeal say that the Treaty targets parties acting at European level, but the regulation only applies to alliances of political parties at European level. Furthermore, they believe the regulation: 1) with its excessively high thresholds, is discriminatory against national groupings; 2) infringes freedom of thought by imposing respect for "the principles on which the EU is founded"; 3) allows indirect subsidies to national parties by authorising the funding of electoral campaigns; 4) infringes the principle of subsidiarity.