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Seven million euro for European political parties
The statute for the European Parties - big money to the big ones.
7 million euro is the amount of money that the head of the Commission,
Romano Prodi, wants to give to European Political Parties, each year from
now on, according to German newspaper Der Spiegel. The money is to be spent
on staff and offices.
Till now, only one party, the European Peoples Party, has had an office to
co-ordinate the spending of EU-money amongst its members. This office has,
however, just last year been criticised by the Court of Justice in
Luxemburg for its somewhat shabby accounts.
Now, what is a European party? The Commission defines this as a party that
deals with European politics and holds five percent of the votes in five
countries. Up to 75 per cent of party funding can originate from the EU
budget whilst at least 25 per cent must be autonomous financed.
This means that if a new statute on political parties is approved by the
European Union, members of the European Parliament that are not members of
a European party will receive no money from the EU, neither will groups,
that split from an existing party or new-founded parties. In reality, this
means that members on the extreme right or extreme left, together with
single EU-sceptical members, can ether kiss their financial support goodbye
or join the big ones.
If adopted, the system will work in favour of existing parties. The five
political parties who will benefit from the system most will be the
Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats, the Liberals, the Leftists and
the Greens. The two EU-critical groups in the Parliament are unlikely to
benefit from the system because they do not organise on a European level.
Political parties in Europe that are organised around local or regional
issues will also have difficulties in receiving funds from the EU because
they do not often meet the criteria of being represented in five member
states.
The European Parliament rapporteur on this matter is German Christian
Democrat, Ursula Schleicher, but her rapport will not be put for vote this
week in the European Parliament session in Brussels, as the Committee on
Constitutional Affairs has not yet finished its work. It will be discussed
next time in the committee on the 10 May.
Under the current Treaty (article 308), the Council can only decide new
rules governing party funding by unanimity. Once the Nice Treaty comes into
effect, this will change and only a qualified majority will be needed to
determine new regulations.
Written by Lis Lak Risager
Edited by Blake Evans-Pritchard
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