Brussels, 29/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 29 November, the European Parliament, meeting for its plenary session in Brussels, adopted the report by Jo Leinen (PES, Germany) on the proposed regulation modifying regulation (EC) 2004/2003 on the status and funding for European political parties, by 538 votes in favour, 74 against and 10 abstentions. The regulation aims essentially to reinforce the role of the European political parties in the forthcoming European elections of 2009 and to allow European electoral campaigns to be funded by these parties. As Mr Leinen asked in his report (our translation): “How will the political parties be able to become major players in European political opinion and contribute to creating a European awareness and the expression of the desires of the citizens of the Union, if they cannot act in the framework of European electoral campaigns?”.
The 2003 regulation on the funding of the European political parties, which is currently in force, bans the parties from funding any such electoral activities. Under the text of the new regulation, which is the subject of an agreement between the Parliament and the Council, the European political parties will even be able to use money from the EU budget to fund European electoral campaigns, as long as this does not constitute the direct or indirect funding of the national political parties or their candidates. However, the national parties will be able to fund the European parties only up to a limit of 40% of their annual budgets.
Financial flexibility. In the future, the European parties will be able to enjoy greater flexibility in the management of their funds: they will be able to put back up to 25% of total revenue from one year to the first quarter of the following year. This new provision is a derogation to the “non-profit” rule listed in the financial regulation in force, which stipulates that at the end of a given financial year, nothing must remain in hand out of any “subsidy” granted to a European political party. Another proposal which won the EP's support on Thursday as a means of increasing the financial flexibility of the European political parties was the possibility of building up reserves over several years out of the parties' own resources (donations, subscriptions from party members and individual members) up to a certain amount. The Commission suggests setting this limit at 100% of the total average revenue of the European political parties.
European political foundations. The MEPs also support the Commission's proposal aiming to allow the European political parties to create and finance affiliated European political foundations. These foundations must be constituted under the law of a member state and have a legal personality, they must have links to a European political party which receives funding from the EU and they must carry out activities “typical” of a political foundation. The request for funding via the EU budget must be submitted by the European political party to which the foundation is affiliated. As is also the case for European political parties, the proportion of funding which comes from the EU budget may not exceed the threshold of 85% of the annual budget of the foundation (under the regulation currently in force, this threshold has been set down at 75%).
The new regulation will enter into force on 1 January 2008. (H.B.)