Brussels, 27/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 27 June the European Commission adopted a proposal to allow for the establishment of European political foundations and an update in the rules for funding European level political parties.
According to the draft regulation, which is expected to be adopted by the Council and Parliament, a political foundation at a European level is an entity (or a network of entities) that possesses “a legal personality in a member state and which is affiliated to a European level political party”. The political foundation supports and completes the objectives of the European political party by accomplishing the following tasks: observation, analysis and contribution to the debate on European public policy questions and the European integration process; organising and support for conferences, training, studies and seminars on issues affecting actors concerned, including youth organisation and other representatives from civil society; provision of framework for cooperation at European level between national political foundations, universities and other actors.
The proposal updates the current regulation (dates from 2003) on the status and funding of European political parties. In total, ten European level political parties are beneficiaries of the application and the funding, the administration of which is overseen by the European Parliament. The budge for these parties was set at €10.4 million in 2007.
Political foundation. According to the Commission European political foundations can support and complete the action of political parties, “and also act as catalysts for new ideas”. As political foundation are closely linked to European political parties, the Commission is proposing that they are obliged to submit their funding requests via the political party they are affiliated to at a European level.
Funding of political parties. Commission proposing to authorise these political parties to bring forward a certain percentage (25%) of total revenue from one year to the first quarter of the following year. The Commission explains that this derogation should allow parties to “better respond to changing conditions and political priorities that are difficult to predict when elaborating their budgets and annual work programmes. It is proposing to leave the possibility to the political parties to make savings of up to 100% of their annual average revenue. The proposal clearly announces that funding from the EU budget can be used to finance campaigns by the political parties at a European level during European Parliament elections, “as long as this does not constitute direct or indirect funding of national political parties or their candidates”.
Vice-President of the Commission responsible for Institutional affairs and communication strategy, Margot Wallström said, “Within the coming months and years Europe will face important political challenges and events including the IGC and the elections to the European Parliament in 2009. Against this backdrop, it is all the more important to involve the citizens in a permanent, genuine and informed political dialogue”. The president of the EP's constitutional affairs committee, Jo Leinen (PES) welcomed this proposal and underlined the “important role” between European citizens and Union institutions, “Europe can only succeed if Union citizens have the capacity to participate in its development. The Commission's proposal aims to strengthen European political parties and set up European political foundations that will help improve the EU's democratic infrastructure”. He welcomed the fact that European political parties will for the first time be able to take part in European elections in 2009. (lc/hb)